Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's election victory means he will helm Japan into the 70th anniversary of its World War II defeat in 2015, a watershed year that will set the tone for Tokyo's fraught ties with Beijing and Seoul.
Deft handling of next year's anniversary could assuage regional anger over Japan's attitude to past aggression, while any missteps could worsen the situation, with Abe now poised to remain prime minister at least until the 2016 Upper House election.
"Like him or not, China has to deal with him for another term," said Lian Degui, deputy director of the Japanese Studies Center at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies.