The Latin morpheme liber (free) has a lot to answer for. Take the word "liberal," which represented a fairly clear political position until American "conservatives" demonized it. But liberals are not "libertarians." The former are seen to favor government schemes that guarantee the welfare of the populace while the latter are strictly hands-off. Then there's "neoliberalism," which describes economic policies that advocate free trade and open markets, ideas that may or may not be supported by liberals. In fact, neoliberalism probably receives more love from "neoconservatives."
In Japan this morpheme, translated as jiyū, is just as confusing, especially since members of the country's main conservative (hoshu) party are called, in English, Liberal Democrats, though they are neither "liberal" in the popular sense of the word or particularly "democratic" if you consider that the party's current president — and likely next prime minister — Shinzo Abe wasn't selected by the people. For that matter, neither was the present prime minister, Yoshihiko Noda, who heads the actual Democratic Party of Japan.
The liberal-conservative dynamic should be in play now because of the upcoming Lower House election, but it isn't. For the past six months the foreign press has speculated about Japan's "turn to the right," as the Washington Post calls it, mainly in relation to the territorial disputes with China and South Korea, which have led to a call for beefing up the Self-Defense Forces and revising the Constitution to do so. These are pet concerns of Abe, but they aren't necessarily disagreeable to Noda. On Oct. 31 Noda announced that the DPJ would be taking a "centrist" route, though a few days later Tokyo Shimbun theorized that if the LDP wins the election then the DPJ will "become more conservative" and wondered if there is any liberal movement at all in mainstream Japanese politics right now. Shiga Governor Yukiko Kada's new Tomorrow Party of Japan is being characterized as the primary liberal force in the election, though, despite the participation of former LDP and DPJ don Ichiro Ozawa, the party isn't fielding enough candidates to make a real difference, and the inclusion of another "third force," the conservative Japan Restoration Party (JRP), will likely neutralize any potential effect the Tomorrow Party could have. The most Kada can hope to do is provide an outlet for liberal viewpoints, mainly with regard to nuclear power and family issues.