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Institute for Social Vision Design

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ISVD-LAB-006Active

Local Assembly Civic Data Lab — Reading Policy Diffusion Across Japan's 1,788 Assemblies

Quantitative analysis of policy diffusion, debate visualisation, and civic participation, drawing on 241 million speech records (aggregated 2026-08-04) from 1,742 of the 1,788 Japanese local assemblies

Research Domain
Civic Tech
Research Lead
Naoya Yokota
Start Date
May 31, 2026 –
Notes
13 notes
13 notesParticipate in & Support Research

Background

Using the 241 million speech records (aggregated 2026-08-04) held by machikarte, a cross-searchable base covering local assemblies nationwide, this lab analyses how policy debate moves over time, spreads between municipalities, and is structured by theme. On a footing of hypotheses, a review of prior research, and a corpus-construction methodology, it reads national distribution and seven-year trends across nine themes: deferral phrasing in assembly responses, vacant houses and public facilities, foreign workers, care, decarbonisation, fiscal soundness, cuts to assembly seats, LGBTQ and partnership systems, and young carers.

Research Artifacts

Progress map of frameworks and deliverables for each phase. Click a slot to expand related notes.

Hypothesis

2/6 complete
Problem MapNot Started
Stakeholder MapNot Started
Literature ReviewCompleted
Literature Map: A Lineage of Local Assembly Speech Data Research — Centered on the Work of Haruka Watanabe, Yasutomo Kimura, and Kenjiro HigashimySociety / TheyWorkForYou(external site, opens in a new tab)GovTrack.us(external site, opens in a new tab)Code for Japan(external site, opens in a new tab)
Research QuestionsNot Started
Logic ModelNot Started
Hypothesis NotesCompleted
Local Assembly Civic Data Lab — Hypotheses and Overview: Reading Assembly Speeches as Observations

Analysis

0/4 complete
Analysis FrameworkNot Started
Causal Loop DiagramNot Started
Analysis NotesIn Progress
National Distribution of Deferral Phrasing in Assembly Responses — A Structural Analysis of 18.97 Million Records from 870 MunicipalitiesRegional Distribution of 'Vacant Houses' and 'Public Facilities' Debate in Japanese Local Assemblies — A Seven-Year Structural Analysis Across 1,320 MunicipalitiesRegional Distribution of 'Foreign Workforce' Debate in Japanese Local Assemblies — A Seven-Year Structural Analysis Across 870 MunicipalitiesSeven Years of 'Care' Mentions in Japanese Local Assemblies — The Time Structure of Long-Term Care Insurance Act Revisions and Policy LagSeven Years of 'Decarbonization' Discourse — Discontinuous Diffusion of Climate Language in Japanese Local Assemblies (2018–2024)Seven Years of 'Fiscal Consolidation' Discourse — The Temporal Structure of Fiscal-Crisis Language in Japanese Local Assemblies (2018–2024)Seven Years of Assembly Seat Reduction Debates — The Time Structure of 'Candidate Shortage' and Seat Apportionment Ordinance Revisions in Japanese Local AssembliesSeven Years of LGBTQ and Partnership Ordinance Debate — Regional Diffusion of Sexual Minority Discourse in Japanese Local AssembliesSeven Years of Young-Carer Mentions in Japanese Local Assemblies — The Time Structure of 'Children Who Care for Family Members' in Assembly Discourse
Data VisualizationNot Started

Paper

0/5 complete
Paper OutlineNot Started
Peer Review PlanNot Started
Research ReportNot Started
Policy BriefNot Started
InfographicNot Started

Outreach

0/4 complete
Public ArticleNot Started
PresentationNot Started
Media KitNot Started
Tools / PrototypeNot Started

Other Notes (13)

13 / 13
01

Regional Distribution of 'Vacant Houses' and 'Public Facilities' Debate in Japanese Local Assemblies — A Seven-Year Structural Analysis Across 1,320 Municipalities

2026-06-25

02

Seven Years of 'Care' Mentions in Japanese Local Assemblies — The Time Structure of Long-Term Care Insurance Act Revisions and Policy Lag

2026-06-09

03

National Distribution of Deferral Phrasing in Assembly Responses — A Structural Analysis of 18.97 Million Records from 870 Municipalities

2026-06-01

04

Structural Snapshot of the Toshima-ku Assembly 2024-2025 Pilot Data — An Early-Stage View of Assembly Response Corpus Building in Tokyo's Special Wards

2026-07-04

05

Regional Distribution of 'Foreign Workforce' Debate in Japanese Local Assemblies — A Seven-Year Structural Analysis Across 870 Municipalities

2026-06-20

06

Local Assembly Civic Data Lab — Hypotheses and Overview: Reading Assembly Speeches as Observations

2026-06-01

07

Literature Map: A Lineage of Local Assembly Speech Data Research — Centered on the Work of Haruka Watanabe, Yasutomo Kimura, and Kenjiro Higashi

2026-06-03

08

Methodology of Assembly Corpus Construction — Turning Response Data from 1,788 Japanese Local Assemblies into Structural Analysis Material

2026-07-03

09

Seven Years of Assembly Seat Reduction Debates — The Time Structure of 'Candidate Shortage' and Seat Apportionment Ordinance Revisions in Japanese Local Assemblies

2026-07-02

10

Seven Years of 'Decarbonization' Discourse — Discontinuous Diffusion of Climate Language in Japanese Local Assemblies (2018–2024)

2026-07-02

11

Seven Years of 'Fiscal Consolidation' Discourse — The Temporal Structure of Fiscal-Crisis Language in Japanese Local Assemblies (2018–2024)

2026-07-02

12

Seven Years of LGBTQ and Partnership Ordinance Debate — Regional Diffusion of Sexual Minority Discourse in Japanese Local Assemblies

2026-07-02

13

Seven Years of Young-Carer Mentions in Japanese Local Assemblies — The Time Structure of 'Children Who Care for Family Members' in Assembly Discourse

2026-07-02

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