In 1998, then-Prime Minster Ryutaro Hashimoto was forced to step down after the LDP won just 44 seats out of 121, and Sousuke Uno lost his job as prime minister after winning only 36 seats in 1989. Even Abe resigned as secretary-general of the party in 2004, when the Liberal Democrats won 49 seats, two short of their goal.

Party officials said last week they would keep Abe no matter what happens. But a ballot box disaster Sunday could change that. No clear successor waits in the wings, although Foreign Minister Taro Aso is sometimes seen as a possible contender.

"We must humbly accept the results of this election," LDP lawmaker Yoichi Masuzoe said after polls closed. But when asked whether Abe should step down, he said "I think we must not act hastily. We must carefully decide what is the best course of action."

Going into Sunday's polls, surveys showed the LDP trailing the Democratic Party. The Yomiuri newspaper predicted the LDP might hold on to only 40 of its 63 seats up for grabs, while the Democrats could walk away with 60 or more, doubling its current 31 seats.

Abe won points after taking office for mending strained diplomatic ties with South Korea and China.

But the prime minister has recently been blamed for mishandling nearly every scandal that has crossed his desk, triggering a stunning reversal of fortune for a ruling party that his predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi, led to a landslide in the last elections in 2005.

Things soured in December, when Administrative Reform Minister Genichiro Sata stepped down over alleged misuse of political funds. But Abe's fortunes really began to unravel in May, when his agriculture minister killed himself amid allegations he misused public funds.

Abe's government came under fire again last month, when Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma suggested the 1945 U.S. nuclear bombings of Japan were justified. Public outcry led to his speedy departure.

Now, his new agriculture minister is also embroiled in a funds scandal.

Yet topping it all, Abe brushed off warnings by the opposition late last year that pension records had been lost _ inaction that came back to haunt him in the spring, when the full scope of the records losses emerged. Wiped out were some 50 million claims.

The ruling party has repeatedly stressed that the Democrats are largely untested in power, while a vote for LDP candidates is a vote for continuity. The LDP is also staking claim to engineering Japan's comeback from more than a decade of economic doldrums.

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