Forty percent of the Japanese electorate hopes the House of Councilors election scheduled for July will end in a tie between the ruling and opposition parties, and 87 percent would like to directly elect the prime minister, according to a Kyodo News poll released Wednesday.
The poll was conducted Dec. 2-3 on 1,988 people aged 20 or older across Japan.
Only 27 percent of the respondents expressed a desire for the ruling parties -- the Liberal Democratic Party, New Komeito and the New Conservative Party -- to secure a majority in the Upper House election.