地方議会 civic data 研究室

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

Aggregated across 870 Japanese municipalities and roughly 18.97 million assembly responses, the share of deferral phrasing — including 'kentou shimasu' (we will consider) and its variants — has a weighted national mean of 3.58% and a municipality-level range from 0% to 21%. Even at the prefectural level, the median spans roughly an elevenfold range. The article reads this as a structural observation, not a ranking.

Machikarte Research Lab — Hypotheses and Overview: Reading Assembly Speeches as Observations

A research lab built on a cross-searchable record of speeches from all 1,788 Japanese local assemblies, designed to read the data as observations rather than verdicts. The subject is structural — distribution, propagation, and silence across municipalities — not individual condemnation. Differentiation rests on data quality assurance, verification scripts, and transparent editorial judgment.

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

A map of prior research on local assembly minutes analysis, corpus studies, and citizen-participation platforms that machikarte builds upon. It traces the full chain of data acquisition, structural extraction, and citizen feedback through three lineages of accumulated research.

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

Aggregated across 1,316 Japanese municipalities and 6.66 million 2024-year speech records, the share of assembly speeches mentioning kaigo (care), youkaigo (care needs), or kaigo hoken (Long-Term Care Insurance) ranges from 1.89% to 2.39% over 2018-2024. The rate rises in 2018 (Long-Term Care Insurance Act revision) and 2024 (start of the 9th Care Insurance Plan), suggesting a structural synchrony between statutory revision cycles and assembly discourse. The article reads this as a structural observation, not an evaluation of individual assemblies.

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

Across 1,316 Japanese municipalities and 6.66 million 2024-year speech records, this article aggregates mentions of foreign-workforce-related terms (gaikokujin-jinzai, gino-jisshu, tokutei-gino, gaikokujin-rodo, ryugakusei) from 2018 to 2024. Annual mentions rose from 6,757 (2018) to a peak of 8,355 (2019), fell to 3,987 (2022), and recovered to 7,703 (2024). The ratio of 'Specified Skilled Worker' to 'Technical Intern' mentions shifted from 0.12 (2018) to 0.53 (2024) — roughly a 4x change. Mentions-per-municipality across prefectures range from 2.00 to 19.63, a tenfold spread. The article reads this as a structural observation, not as an evaluation of individual assemblies.

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

Across the machikarte corpus of roughly 125 million local assembly speech records (2018-2024 window, up to 1,320 Japanese municipalities), this article aggregates mentions of vacant-houses (akiya), public-facilities, and school-closure terms. Akiya mentions follow a U-shaped recovery — 34,573 in 2018, falling to 24,100-25,791 in 2019-2021, and recovering to 34,847 in 2024. Public-facility mentions reach a seven-year high in 2024 (67,014). Co-mentions of 'small concession' rise from 2 in 2023 to 36 in 2024. The article reads these as structural observations, not as evaluations of individual assemblies.

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

Using the assembly speech dataset constructed by the machikarte lab, this article aggregates speeches containing terms such as 'assembly seat reduction,' 'seat apportionment ordinance,' 'candidate shortage,' and 'uncontested elections' across 2018-2024. The annual trend holds at a steady level from 2018-2020, dips relatively in 2021-2022, and rises again in 2023-2024, with 2024 reaching one of the highest levels in the seven-year window. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications research group report (2020) and the Local Autonomy Act revision discussions (2023) correspond to the time structure of assembly mentions.

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

Using the minutes dataset built by the Machikarte Lab (covering more than one million assembly speeches as of 2024), we aggregated speeches containing climate-related terms — 'decarbonization,' 'carbon neutrality,' 'renewable energy,' 'global warming,' and 'greenhouse gas' — by year and prefecture for 2018–2024. While 'renewable energy' was already well-established in 2018, 'decarbonization' and 'carbon neutrality' show a discontinuous surge in 2021. The data reveal a structural pattern in which language spread simultaneously across local assemblies within one year of the Suga Cabinet's October 2020 declaration of carbon neutrality by 2050.

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

Using the minutes dataset built by the Machikarte Lab, we aggregated speeches containing fiscal-crisis terms — 'fiscal consolidation,' 'fiscal reconstruction,' 'fiscal rigidity,' 'fiscal adjustment fund,' and 'real debt service ratio' — by year and prefecture for 2018–2024. Annual mention counts moved in the range of roughly 20,000 to 30,000 speeches per year, trending flat from 2018 to 2020 and rising gradually from 2021 onward to reach the low 30,000s in 2024. The gap in discussion density across prefectures reaches approximately eightfold, and that gap does not map one-to-one onto fiscal conditions. This article reads the data as observational findings on the temporal structure and regional distribution of fiscal-consolidation discourse in assembly proceedings — not as an evaluation of individual assemblies.

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

Drawing on the assembly-minutes dataset built at the machikarte Lab — which contains over one million speech records as of 2024 — this article aggregates speeches mentioning 'LGBTQ,' 'partnership ordinance,' or 'sexual minority' by year and prefecture from 2018 to 2024. The legislative trajectory of the Act for the Promotion of Public Understanding of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (enacted June 2023) coincides with a sharp rise in assembly mentions after 2021; by 2024, annual mention counts are several times their 2018 level. Prefectures that were early adopters of local partnership-recognition schemes show markedly higher mention density.

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

Drawing on the assembly-minutes dataset built at the machikarte Lab, this article aggregates speeches mentioning 'young carer' or 'youth carer' by year and prefecture from 2018 to 2024. Mention counts were near zero before 2020, surged sharply from 2021 onward, and reached their seven-year peak in 2024. Prefecture-level mention density varies by a factor of roughly ten, making it possible to observe both the time-lag effects of awareness-raising measures and the underlying regional disparities.

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

A methodological account of how machikarte acquires, normalizes, and quality-assures local assembly response data, and how the labs layer turns that base into structural analysis material.

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

The machikarte assembly-response corpus currently holds 2,211 speeches (65 speakers / 18 sessions) from the Toshima-ku assembly for 2024-2025. This case note reads that pilot slice honestly, holding the analysis at municipality-aggregate granularity, and treating the non-recording of other wards including Setagaya-ku as 'ingestion not yet started' rather than 'nothing to observe'.