Verstappen had strongly foreshadowed his 29th career pole position throughout the weekend, sweeping all three practice sessions with ease on his way into qualifying.
He topped Q1, finished second in Q2 - only because he was fast enough to need only one lap rather than two - and dominated Q3.
Both laps in the pole-setting session were quick enough to take spot, with his first opening a 0.443-second advantage and the second blowing out the margin to an imperious 0.581 seconds.
“An incredible weekend so far, especially in qualifying, when you can really push it to the limit,” he said. “It felt really, really nice.
“I already felt from the preparation we had that this was going to be a good track. You never really know how good it’s going to be, but from lap one it’s been really nice. To be on pole here is fantastic.”
On any other day Piastri’s first grand prix front-row start, coming in his rookie year, would have stolen the show, but the Australian was satisfied to have put in such a clean lap on his first visit to the formidable Japanese circuit.
“It’s been a really good weekend for the team so far,” he said. “We thought we might have a decent chance around here. We’ve still got to make it happen.
“We’ve got upgrades on the car, and they’re quick.
“I’m happy to be second and for the team to be second and third - very happy.
“It’s the first time I’ve started on the front row for a while. It’ll be cool. There’s only one car ahead to overtake, so I’ll try to make that happen.”
His McLaren teammate, Lando Norris, came close to snatching the front row for himself, but the Briton fell short by just 0.035 seconds to start the race third.
“It’s been a very good day for us as a team,” he said. “I was pretty happy with my laps, as it’s not an easy circuit to put everything together always - a small mistake can mean a big amount of lap time.
“It’s been a good day. Good position for tomorrow.”
Charles Leclerc spearheaded Ferrari’s effort to finish the afternoon only 0.049 seconds behind Norris, but that was enough to put more than a tenth of a second on Sergio Pérez, the sister Red Bull Racing driver a whopping 0.773 seconds down on his all-conquering teammate.
Carlos Sainz wills tart the race sixth ahead of Mercedes teammates Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.
Home favourite Yuki Tsunoda, freshly re-signed to AlphaTauri for another season, qualified a strong ninth ahead of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso in 10th.
Kiwi rookie Liam Lawson wills tart the race 11th, missing out on a pole-shootout spot by 0.043s.
Pierre Gasly qualified 12th for Alpine ahead of Thai driver Alex Albon in his Williams. Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and Haas driver Kevin Magnussen followed in 14th and 15th respectively.
Valtteri Bottas will start 16th for Alfa Romeo ahead of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, Haas driver Nico Hülkenberg and Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu.
Logan Sargeant ended the session without a time after crashing out of qualifying at the end of what would have been his first flying lap.
The American rookie slid off the road at speed exiting the final corner, keeping his foot in attempting to power out of the slide, and smashed into the outside barrier.
The force of the crash caused significant damage to the left-hand side of the car, leaving his Williams team with much work to do overnight to ensure Sargeant can make the start of the race today.