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 roughly 238 million speech records from all 1,788 Japanese local assemblies
Background
Using the roughly 238 million assembly speech records 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
2/6Framework
Problem Map
Stakeholder Map
Logic Model
Deliverable
Research Questions
Fieldwork
1/5Framework
Data Collection Plan
Ethics Checklist
Deliverable
Fieldwork Notes
Analysis
0/4Framework
Analysis Framework
Causal Loop Diagram
Deliverable
Data Visualization
Paper
0/5Framework
Paper Outline
Peer Review Plan
Deliverable
Research Report
Policy Brief
Infographic
Outreach
0/4Public Article
Presentation
Media Kit
Tools / Prototype
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Discuss research participationResearch Artifacts
- 1.1Problem Map
- 1.2Stakeholder Map
- 1.4Logic Model
- 1.5Research Questions
- 2.2Data Collection Plan
- 2.3Ethics Checklist
- 2.4Fieldwork Notes
- 3.1Analysis Framework
- 3.2Causal Loop Diagram
- 3.3.1National Distribution of Deferral Phrasing in Assembly Responses — A Structural Analysis of 18.97 Million Records from 870 Municipalities
- 3.3.2Regional Distribution of 'Vacant Houses' and 'Public Facilities' Debate in Japanese Local Assemblies — A Seven-Year Structural Analysis Across 1,320 Municipalities
- 3.3.3Regional Distribution of 'Foreign Workforce' Debate in Japanese Local Assemblies — A Seven-Year Structural Analysis Across 870 Municipalities
- 3.3.4Seven Years of 'Care' Mentions in Japanese Local Assemblies — The Time Structure of Long-Term Care Insurance Act Revisions and Policy Lag
- 3.3.5Seven Years of 'Decarbonization' Discourse — Discontinuous Diffusion of Climate Language in Japanese Local Assemblies (2018–2024)
- 3.3.6Seven Years of 'Fiscal Consolidation' Discourse — The Temporal Structure of Fiscal-Crisis Language in Japanese Local Assemblies (2018–2024)
- 3.3.7Seven Years of Assembly Seat Reduction Debates — The Time Structure of 'Candidate Shortage' and Seat Apportionment Ordinance Revisions in Japanese Local Assemblies
- 3.3.8Seven Years of LGBTQ and Partnership Ordinance Debate — Regional Diffusion of Sexual Minority Discourse in Japanese Local Assemblies
- 3.3.9Seven Years of Young-Carer Mentions in Japanese Local Assemblies — The Time Structure of 'Children Who Care for Family Members' in Assembly Discourse
- 3.4Data Visualization
- 4.1Paper Outline
- 4.2Peer Review Plan
- 4.3Research Report
- 4.4Policy Brief
- 4.5Infographic
- 5.1Public Article
- 5.2Presentation
- 5.3Media Kit
- 5.4Tools / Prototype