Conventional wisdom predicted that the Liberal Democratic Party would reign supreme in Japan’s July 12 Upper House elections. Public opinion polls taken a week before the election gave little cause for doubt: major newspapers projected that an indifferent electorate would allow the LDP to at least preserve its position, and the LDP boastfully predicted that it would win enough seats to recapture a majority in the chamber. A return to the days of one-party rule was just around the corner.