Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori is doing everything he can to discourage Japanese voters from taking tomorrow's election seriously. He is succeeding. On top of his efforts, is getting help from the media, which are already predicting a comfortable margin of victory for the current ruling coalition.

This news of a pending election victory for the Liberal Democratic Party alone should encourage all the undecided voters who might have hoped for change to stay home tomorrow. And that is Mori's preference, as he made clear when he blatantly suggested in Niigata on Tuesday that he hoped all independent voters would just sleep in on Sunday.

So, why bother with all this? What is this election really all about? Actually, it is a critical vote that should be taken more seriously than it is. For better or worse, the next group of political leaders will determine if real change is possible in Japan or if Japan will just stay the course of the disastrous past decade and try to muddle through.