Local governments have conducted many public opinion surveys of citizens in order to measure public opinion on the so-called municipal mega-mergers of the Heisei era. The results of these surveys have played an important role in municipal mergers. In this paper, we report the survey responses and public opinions on the municipal merger of the Noshiro-Yamamoto area in 2004. This paper examines (1) the response rate and survey participation, (2) the nonresponse rate and (3) the characteristics of public opinion by age group. A correspondence analysis of the results indicates a correlation between the characteristics of public opinion for city design and the ages of the citizens. Problems in measuring public opinion and conducting social surveys for local governments are also discussed. JEL classification: R59, D70, D79