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.
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