Abstract: During the Trump administration, through political, military and economic policy adjustments toward the US, Abe administration attempted to realize Abes personalized governing philosophy, hedge against the uncertainty of Trumps policies, and counterbalance the “security threats” from China and North Korea. Although both Japan and the US witnessed a change in leadership around 2021, the postAbe era will see a high degree of consensus between Japan and the US on the issue of counterbalancing China. Therefore, Kishida administration will basically continue the established course planned by the Abe administration, actively cooperating with the Biden administrations policy of counterbalancing China while further attempting to enhance Japans international political and economic status and strategic autonomy. As a result, the uncertainty of SinoJapanese relations will rise significantly in the future, and SinoJapanese relations may once again show a situation of “cold politics and cold economy”. In view of this, China needs to take active measures to properly handle its relations with Japan and the United States. coalition”. During the longterm independent ruling of the Liberal Democratic Party (1955 to 1993), the presidential election was conducted by faction. Factions were tools for presidential candidates to canvass votes or win the majority. It is an “abnormal state” for a nonfactional leader to serve as president—emergency temporary measures by the Liberal Democratic Party. Under the parallel electoral system of proportional representation in small electoral districts, the factional politics of the Liberal Democratic Party shows different characteristics from those under the electoral district system—the function of factions and their binding force are significantly weakened. Especially in the presidential election, the faction has been reduced from “the protagonist” to “a supporting role”. It has become a “new normal” for a nonfactional leader to become president, and a faction leader to become president is an anomaly. Regardless of the future development trend of LDP factional politics, its invariable logic is it is still governed by the rules of the invisible political game.

Key words: principalagent theory, Japanese politics, Democratic regime, political dominance, political decisionmaking