If reports hold true, the Japanese public will be heading to the polls in just a few short weeks. They will be casting ballots for the country's powerful Lower House of the Diet in a vote that will shape the political landscape for the coming years.
Newly minted Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has modestly projected that his Liberal Democratic Party will retain a simple majority. But that is a low-ball projection that belies the massive vote-generating machines inside his party and its junior partner, Komeito.
It’s precisely because of these machines that the ruling coalition has an edge over the opposition, and the LDP and Komeito intend to put them to use in the short campaign period that will likely begin this week.