Campaigning has begun in earnest for an election that will test whether Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi can turn his popularity into a decisive victory for his party.
More than 1,000 people, many waving small Japanese flags, braved a chilling downpour to hear Mr Koizumi make his campaign pitch in the western Tokyo residential suburb of Machida ahead of the November 9th poll.
"I'm grateful so many of you came out in the rain. I want to respect your support and turn the LDP into a party of reform," Mr Koizumi told a largely female crowd from atop a van as aides held umbrellas and listeners snapped photos of him with cell phones.
The general election - the first since Mr Koizumi leapt to power in April 2001 promising to fix the world's second largest economy - will also provide clues to whether Japan is finally moving toward a true two-party system.
The poll pits the conservative ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its two partners primarily against the Democratic Party led by Mr Naoto Kan, a former lawyer and one-time health minister who has spent most of his career battling the system.
More than 1,000 candidates were expected to register on the first official day of campaigning for the 480 seats in the Lower House, the more powerful of parliament's two chambers.
The LDP has ruled for most of the past half century either alone or in a coalition, except for a brief period in 1993-94 when it was ousted by a broad but unwieldy reformist coalition. The LDP-led ruling camp had 285 seats prior to dissolution, of which the LDP alone had 244 compared to 137 for the Democrats.
Early opinion polls have suggested that Mr Koizumi - whose personal public support rate is about 60 per cent - was giving the LDP an edge over the Democrats.