The political reforms that have been going on since the 1990s have drastically changed the face of politics in Japan. The most significant of these reforms was the change of government, which brought an end, albeit only once, to the long-standing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) regime. These changes were expected to change the power structure by altering the contact of interest groups with political elites. I examine this issue based on a longitudinal survey conducted in four rounds between 1997 and 2017. The results show a robust structure of interest group politics, although the features were weakening. That is, contacts with the LDP and the bureaucracy were sources of political influence for interest groups. The impact of the two-party system and its setbacks are seen in the change in contact with the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ). However, The DPJ did not function as a source of interest representation.

中文翻译：

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日本的利益集团政治及其变迁

自 1990 年代以来一直在进行的政治改革极大地改变了日本的政治面貌。这些改革中最重要的是政府更迭，虽然只有一次，但它结束了长期存在的自民党（LDP）政权。这些变化有望通过改变利益集团与政治精英的联系来改变权力结构。我基于 1997 年至 2017 年间进行的四轮纵向调查来检验这个问题。结果显示了利益集团政治的稳健结构，尽管这些特征正在减弱。也就是说，与自民党和官僚机构的接触是利益集团政治影响力的来源。两党制的影响及其挫折体现在与日本民主党（DPJ）接触的变化上。然而，DPJ 并没有作为利益代表的来源。