“We’d like railway fans and children across Japan to enjoy steam locomotives, which we could say are cultural assets,” said a JR East official."
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20090207p2a00m0na026000c.html
Happily for all concerned, there are a LOT of stuffed and mounted steam locomotives in Japan. Also, if you say railfan in that country you have just described something over half the population - most of whom commute to school or work or travel to shop by rail.
At least JR-East has a realistic idea of the cost of bringing a display locomotive to operational status.
Chuck