AS Japanese voters go to the polls on Sunday to elect a new House of Representatives, the result will almost certainly mark the end of an era in Japanese politics, but not the beginning of a new one.
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has been continually in power since 1955, will still emerge as a major power, very possibly still the dominant one in the land. But it is also very likely that after the voting the first tentative, maybe even clear-cut steps will be taken towards change and reform of the arena where the LDP has long been supreme.
More precisely, the election should mark the beginning of the breakup of both the LDP and the cluster of opposition parties into a more coherent two-party system, capable of giving more democratic substance to Japan's political structure.
Indicative of the desperation with which the LDP views these prospects, and the party's fears that the judgment of the electorate will be much more harsh than it is likely to be, the LDP leaders have been hard at work trying to heighten the pervasive Japanese sense of being victimised by a hostile world. They thereby seek to get voters, through fear, to opt for stability rather than change.
Former Foreign Minister Michio Watanabe got the ball rolling by reminding all Japanese, lest they be seduced by President Bill Clinton's faith in change, that the United States is a bastion of crime, racism and AIDS. Mr Watanabe has followed up by warning, in derogatory terms, that an opposition-led Japan would duplicate the chaos of Italy.
The most popular speaker on the LDP election circuit, former novelist and transport minister Shintaro Ishihara has been even more vitriolic in his America-bashing, saying that its politicians are fourth-rate.