It seems that Japanese people are losing trust and interest in politics. The Japanese political system is under greater strain than at anytime in the postwar era, and there's great pressure for fundamental change. Politicians have lost touch with the views of voters. For the first time, the great majority of Japanese voters don't support any political party. Victories of non-party governors are becoming generalized phenomena in local elections.
Fundamental change is now unavoidable.
It's hard to know, but the trend is clearly towards continued erosion in the LDP support base. Unless the LDP makes a fundamental internal reform, sooner or later, it will lose power. In fact, whether the LDP will survive as a political party is unknown. It is possible that the party will split to form new parties. Either way, I think it will take most of this decade for new kinds of political parties to emerge in Japan.