Sunday night was shaping up to be a night that many Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers would rather forget, based on exit poll data pointing to the ruling party losing a majority of its own.
But as the night progressed and ballots were counted, it turned out to be one that could be seen in a much more positive way. Defying some media predictions, the ruling party ended up achieving an “absolute stable majority" of 261 by itself, allowing the party to chair all standing committees and have its lawmakers make up the majority of members on those bodies.
Combined with the seats obtained by its junior coalition partner Komeito — which obtained three additional seats, raising its tally to 32 — the ruling bloc won 293 seats.