In an attempt to take advantage of his(and the LDP's) surging popularity in light of North Korea's increasingly bellicose tone and possibly amend the constitution with a larger majority, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has called a snap election in the House of Representatives.
Although no date has officially been set since the formal dissolution won't be until Thursday, it will most likely be on October 22 or 29 according to most experts. So, here we are with another major election this year, which could change the region and the world, particularly if Abe and the LDP get enough seats to amend Japan's constitution to create real armed forces as opposed to the Self-Defence Forces they currently have.
Here's how it'll go down: There are 465 seats up for grabs, 289 of which are FPTP single-member constituencies, the rest are regional blocs elected by proportional party lists with d'Hondt as the counting method.
And here are the parties:
Liberal Democratic Party(LDP): Nationalist, Right-wing, Social Conservative, Economic Liberal
Constitutional Democratic Party(CDP): Centre-left, Liberal
Kibo no To(Party of Hope)-including former Democratic Party: Big tent, reformist, conservative, considerable centre-left element
Komeito(Current coalition partner): Centre-right, Social Conservative, Political Buddhist
Japanese Communist Party(JCP): Pacifist, Communist, Left-wing
Nippon Ishin no Kai AKA Initiatives from Japan: Localist, Centre-right, Pro-limited government
So, who do you support, NSG?
Honestly, I support the Democrats, but I also know that there's practically no chance of them getting elected despite the Japanese people's reticence at the idea of constitutional change to create armed forces. The LDP will win, it's just a matter of whether or not they will have enough Representatives to do what Abe wants.
EDIT 9/28/2017: The Democratic Party has disbanded, and all representatives will be running as members of the new Kibo no To Party instead. The poll has been changed to reflect this, though I couldn't actually reset the numbers.
EDIT 10/4/2017: A contingent of left-leaning former Democrats led by Yukio Edano have formed the Constitutional Democratic Party, and it's already reached second place behind the LDP in terms of Twitter followers, which could probably mean good numbers on election day. Accordingly, I've added them to the poll, and consequently, the poll is reset. My apologies to all who have voted, but after looking at the postwar history, almost every party but the LDP tends to morph like this...hopefully, it won't happen again.