Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has said he will take into account public opinion, along with various other factors, when he decides whether to extend the one-year Self-Defense Forces mission in Iraq, which expires Dec. 14.

Newspaper opinion polls have shown that most people oppose continuing the deployment.

But some people question if the typical methodology of media surveys -- asking pollees to select from among a rigid set of answers and putting emphasis on the raw numbers -- correctly gauges the diversity of public opinion.