TOKYO -- Just 16% of respondents to a weekend poll conducted by the Mainichi Shimbun said they want to go to see the 2025 World Expo, which will open in the western Japan city of Osaka in April, while 67% said they don't want to tour the site.

Dividing respondents into House of Representatives proportional representation blocs, the alliance in the Kinki region in western Japan saw the highest proportion of people who said they wanted to visit the expo, at 28%. Following were the Shikoku alliance in western Japan at 27% and the Kyushu bloc in southwestern Japan at 20%. However, the proportion of respondents wanting to attend the event failed to reach 20% in the eight other alliances, and even in the Kinki bloc, 50% said they didn't want to go.

Among supporters of Nippon Ishin (the Japan Innovation Party), which is backing the expo, formally known as Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan, 39% said they "don't want to go," surpassing the 33% who said they do want to visit.

At the same time, 16% of all respondents to the survey conducted on Feb. 15 and 16 said they were "not sure" whether they would go or not. The results indicate that underscoring the appeal of the expo remains an issue to tackle ahead of the event's April 13 opening.

(Japanese original by Daisuke Nohara, Poll Office)