It has been three years since the current administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took office in late 2012. Under no other administration in the 60-year history of the Liberal Democratic Party has Japan faced more harsh circumstances, both internally and externally.

To break out of long-term deflation, Abe's government has administered the powerful medicine of quantitative easing in the Bank of Japan's monetary policy. It has set the goal of raising the total fertility rate to 1.8 to address the declining population. It has also moved to beef up Japan's deterrence in the face of China's aggressive attempts to use force to change the regional maritime order. In all three examples, Abe's administration has pursued qualitatively different policies than those undertaken by the LDP over the postwar period.

All three policies represent a departure from the trajectory of "postwar conservatism" nourished by the LDP, providing grounds for fears that they could undermine center-right politics in this country. This form of conservatism has been the foundation of the LDP politics from the administration of Hayato Ikeda to that of Keizo Obuchi. Its defining features were the LDP's characterization as a national party that did not abandon the weak, the pursuit of an enlightened national interest based on the principle of international cooperation and a preference for fiscal health that provided for inter-generational fairness in terms of assets and opportunities.