Taking the podium last month at the Liberal Democratic Party's first convention since its fall from power at the hands of voters last summer, Katsuya Nomura, former manager of the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles baseball team, had a few words of advice for the LDP.
"Victory can come unexpectedly, but when you lose, there's always a good reason," the legendary skipper and catcher said. "Never forget that when you're at the top, there's always those looking to pull you down."
Nomura's advice must have hit a sour note for the political behemoth that ruled Japan for more than half a century but was ousted by a public anxious over the future and fed up with a party dogged by scandals and internal disarray.