Judgment day has arrived for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and the fates of 1,191 Diet hopefuls hang in the balance.
But the focus of Sunday's snap House of Representatives election is not on how close it will be, but on how strong the ruling coalition will become. Most media reports predict Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party alone will win as many as 300 of the 475 seats in the lower chamber.
According to media projections, the LDP-Komeito ruling coalition is likely to secure two-thirds of the Lower House in a landslide victory, giving it an absolute majority. That will allow the bloc to chair all of the committees in the chamber and even override decisions by the Upper House.