The once dominant Liberal Democratic Party has withered so miserably since losing the general election Aug. 30 that it looks as if it could suffer a total collapse or disintegration.

Nearly three months after the Democratic Party of Japan unseated the LDP, the new government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama still appears too shaky to garner much voter trust, but even more conspicuous is the LDP's self- inflicted defeatism and its failure to take up the role of a leading opposition party.

What was it that enabled the DPJ to win 308 of 480 seats in the Lower House while dropping the number of LDP seats to only 119? Even as the votes were being counted, Katsuya Okada, then DPJ secretary general and now foreign minister, said, "I believe it's because the Liberal Democrats have become unworthy of running the government."

On the same day, Taro Aso, then prime minister and LDP president, attributed the loss to "citizens' accumulated dissatisfaction and distrust toward my party over the years."

It's interesting to note that both Okada and Aso blamed the LDP's faults for the election results rather than any positive action on the DPJ's part.

A good example of the LDP's "unworthiness to govern" was in the Sept. 16 Diet vote to elect a new prime minister. Although each legislator voted for the head of his or her respective political party, as has long been customary, LDP lawmakers cast their ballots for Masatoshi Wakabayashi, an obscure figure of 75 who had the titular position of party caucus head in both houses.

The choice of Wakabayashi was an expediency adopted by the LDP, as it had failed to elect a new party president in time. This was shameful in itself, unprecedented in the party's history of more than half a century. It was quite amazing to hear some LDP lawmakers say to the effect that who they voted for didn't make any difference because their candidate "cannot possibly win the premiership anyway."

On Sept. 28, the party finally got down to choosing its new leader. Here again, its members could not depart from the traditional habit of "not rocking the boat," as they elected former Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki. He was chosen not necessarily because of his leadership skills but because he was regarded as capable of maintaining intraparty harmony.

The idea of choosing a "man of harmony" dates back to 1980, when the sudden death of Masayoshi Ohira led then-kingmaker Kakuei Tanaka to appoint Zenko Suzuki as successor. Tanaka and Suzuki were reportedly tuned in to each other. Suzuki called for cooperation from all party members "since I lack political competence."

It is ridiculous for the party to follow this same scenario nearly 30 years later at a time when it faces the urgent task of uniting under strong leadership in a bid to recover from its resounding defeat.

Even more surprising was Tanigaki's choosing, as new lieutenants, three individuals who had held important posts under Aso and who thus should have been held accountable for the party's election defeat: former Diet Policy Committee Chairman Tadamori Oshima as secretary general, former agriculture minister Shigeru Ishiba as chairman of the Policy Affairs Research Council and former economy and trade minister Toshihiro Nikai as election campaign chief.

Some may excuse Tanigaki for making these choices because of the shortage of competent leaders within the party, since many would-be candidates failed to get re-elected Aug. 30. But it makes more sense to assume that the sudden end of decades of one-party rule has left the LDP unable to come up with a fresh setup. Some insiders have chided the new LDP leader for appointing a number of lawmakers to so many newly created acting head positions within the party.

Tanigaki stated: "I will lead the party on the royal path of conservatism. Returning to the starting point of conservatism, I will attach value to stronger bonds among family members . . . and the heart to love the nation." Although these words sound hollow and abstract, we can expect him to continue saying this kind of thing for some time.

Meanwhile, a positive comment about the LDP situation has come from Gerald L. Curtis, professor of political science at Columbia University and one of the foremost experts on Japanese politics in the United States. Writing the preface to the recently revised Japanese-language edition of his 1971 book "Election Campaigning Japanese Style," he attributes the LDP's election loss to its inability to keep up with social change.

Curtis says the party, despite its recent defeat, should be in a good position to launch a counteroffensive against the new DPJ government by virtue of its past experience in ruling the nation, adding that this means that Japanese politics has entered a "new system."

Such a scenario does not appear likely to materialize, though, judging from the way the LDP is seen by many as having become unworthy of running the government or representing the citizens.

Tanigaki faces the task of doing everything in his power to resuscitate his deeply wounded party, and he must recognize that its eventual collapse or disintegration cannot be ruled out.

This is an abridged translation of an article form the November issue of Sentaku, a monthly magazine covering Japanese political, social and economic scenes.