Policy Analysis
Policy Analysis
132 items
Insights & Analysis
Japan Post Failed to State Terms to 167 Freelancers. The First Day of the Violation Period Is the Day the Law Took Effect
Insights & Analysis
Fukushima Holds About 14 Million Cubic Metres of Removed Soil. Reuse Outside the Prefecture Began With Flower Beds at Two Government Buildings
Insights & Analysis
Japan's Refundable Tax Credit Starts in FY2029 — the Registration Rate for the Public Benefit Account It Rests On Is About 50%, and the Rest Still Need Their Consent Confirmed
Labs
Japan Cut the Default Speed Limit on Residential Roads to 30 km/h — a Nationwide Noise Measure Enacted Without Noise as an Objective
Insights & Analysis
Foreign Parties Acquired 175 Hectares of Japanese Farmland, 0.004% of the National Total — and Not One Hectare Went to a Foreign Corporation or a Foreign National Living Abroad
Insights & Analysis
1,218 Retrial Applications Concluded in Five Years and 7 Orders to Reopen — 115 of the 121 Dismissed in 2023 Had No Examination of Facts at All
Insights & Analysis
Overseas Sales of Japanese Content Tripled in Ten Years to ¥5.8 Trillion, and the Cool Japan Fund Will Not Request Funding for FY2027
Insights & Analysis
Permanent Residence Will Require Income Above the Average for Japanese Households — 61.5% of Japanese Households Fall Below That Average of 5.752 Million Yen
Insights & Analysis
3,772 Medical Incidents Reported in Ten and a Half Years, About 356 a Year — the Design Estimate Was 1,300 to 2,000, and the Clause Requiring a Review Within Two Years Has Sat Expired for a Decade
Insights & Analysis
Vote-Weight Disparity Passes 2x in 16 Districts — Japan's Last Redistricting Started at 1.999
Insights & Analysis
Before Restricting Children's Social Media by Age — How to Establish Age Is Still Sitting in the Open-Questions Column
Insights & Analysis
Fraud Losses in Japan Rose 98% in a Year While Cases Cleared Stood Still — Most Reports From People in Their 30s, Most Money From Those in Their 70s
Insights & Analysis
Japan's National Pension Payment Rate Hits 79.6%, Rising for a 14th Year — Yet Fewer Months Are Actually Being Paid
Insights & Analysis
Toward a Right Not to Have Your Voice Used — Japan's Copyright Act Protects the Performance, Not the Voice
Insights & Analysis
28 Firms Raided Over Suspected Bid Rigging in Condominium Repairs — Japan Named the Method Nine Years Ago and Published the Going Rates From 944 Projects
Insights & Analysis
A Religious Corporation's Assets Come into View Only as It Nears Dissolution — 83.4 Billion Yen at Liquidation and the Three-Stage Design of Disclosure
Insights & Analysis
For a Distant Tsunami That Brings No Shaking, Only Trust in the Warning Drives Evacuation — the Dilemma of False Alarms and Misses
Insights & Analysis
Ten Riot Police, Twenty Minutes, a House That Had Not Collapsed — False Rescue Requests Went from 1 in 573 to 104 in 1,091
Insights & Analysis
The Linear-Shizuoka Agreement Now Carries a Clause to Halt the Work — How a Century-Old Memory of Water Loss Became Procedure
Insights & Analysis
While a Work-Injury Claim Waits, Nothing Bridges the Bereaved — Six-Month-Plus Backlog Doubled to 2,329 in Five Years
Insights & Analysis
46% of New Vets Go to Pets, 11% to Livestock — Japan Isn't Short of Vets, They're Maldistributed
Insights & Analysis
Bear Injuries Hit a Record 216 in Japan — Depopulation Has Emptied the Hands That Tended the Boundary
Insights & Analysis
Kumamoto's Car Society Cannot Be Solved by Roads — Transit's Downward Spiral and Planning Backward from Where People Live
Insights & Analysis
Trucking's "Appropriate Cost" — Can a Legal Floor Stop Rates Thinning Toward the Bottom of Multi-Tier Subcontracting?
Insights & Analysis
Repairs Keep Surfacing After You Buy a Kominka — The Information Gap Born of Inheritance and Aging
Insights & Analysis
Inherited Forest Land Without Clear Boundaries — Negative Assets and the Making of Owner-Unknown Land
Insights & Analysis
School Pools Are Disappearing — How Fiscal Gaps Between Municipalities Become Gaps in Learning to Swim
Insights & Analysis
Farm Machinery That Runs Only Days a Year — The Structure That Keeps Individual Ownership Locked In
Insights & Analysis
Mental-Disorder Workers' Comp Awards Hit a Record 1,082 (FY2025): How Japan's Occupational Injury Shifted from Overwork Death to Psychological Strain
Labs
The intersection of shrinking society and epistemic justice / Extracting structural patterns via 5-lab integration
Labs
Operationalizing the Six-Field Integration Model — A Four-Stage Mapping from Theory to Practice
Labs
Quantitative Comparison of Noise Ordinances Across Tokyo's 23 Special Wards — Implementation Divergences in Penalties, Time Restrictions, Source Categories, and Resident Petition Protocols
Labs
The Five-Layer Methodology of Meaning Inversion for Shrinking Assets — A Draft Evaluation Framework for PPP Projects
Labs
A Proposed Industry Responsibility Clause for the Municipal Soundscape Ordinance Model
Labs
WHO 2018 Environmental Noise Guidelines vs. Japan's Standards — What a Gap of Up to 25 dB Actually Means
Labs
The Learning Curve of Nine Noise Lawsuits — From the Tolerable Limit Doctrine to a ¥5.9 Billion Verdict
Insights & Analysis
Japan's Second-Hand Smoke Law Seven Years In — The Revised Health Promotion Act and Regional Variation in Indoor-Smoking Rules
Insights & Analysis
Chemical Management and SDS Compliance: Legal Reform and the Burden Structure on Japanese SMEs
Insights & Analysis
Kamakura Overtourism: Treating Tourist Destinations as Public Goods
Insights & Analysis
Time Asymmetry in Pediatric Care: How Japan's 71.9% Dual-Income Reality Collides with Medical Access
Insights & Analysis
When Sick-Child Care Fails on the Day of Fever: Japan's Social-Security Gap
Insights & Analysis
Bound by the Phone: The Structure That Distorts Nursing Labor Quality and Time Allocation
Insights & Analysis
Japan's April 2026 Welfare Reform: What Changed, and What Didn't
Insights & Analysis
Japan's Bicycle Blue Ticket: One-Month Review of 2,147 Citations, 7 Zero Prefectures, and the Logic of a 'Visibility Device'
Insights & Analysis
Japan's 2025 Births Fall to 671,000 — 15 Years Ahead of Projections, Even as Marriages Rose
Insights & Analysis
The Fragility of 'One Million Furusato Residents': Can Numerical Targets Qualify as EBPM?
Insights & Analysis
What Are the Seven Axes of SDI (Social Design Index)? — A Guide to Scoring Logic and Interpretation
Insights & Analysis
The Day Digital Textbooks Became Official: Decoding Japan's 2026 Cabinet Decision
Insights & Analysis
Japan's 2026 Social Insurance Burden Rush — ¥4,800 More a Year at a ¥6M Income
Insights & Analysis
Where Did 1.3 Trillion Yen in Hometown Tax Go? — The Redistribution That Never Reaches 'the Regions'
Insights & Analysis
Japan's Working Pension Threshold Raised to ¥650,000: Who Actually Benefits?
Insights & Analysis
353,970 Non-Attending Students: What Japan's 12-Year High Conceals
Insights & Analysis
The Reality After Japan's Digital Textbook 'Formalization': How the Three-Option System Entrenches Regional Inequality
Insights & Analysis
Four Furusato Tax Reforms: Who Is the Redistribution Engine Really For?
Insights & Analysis
The End of Real Estate Tax Avoidance: Japan's Inheritance Tax '5-Year Rule' and the Structural Closure of Intergenerational Wealth Transfer Routes
Insights & Analysis
The Emergency Revision of Long-Term Care Reimbursement Rates and Its Structural Limits: The Government's Own Confession That the Ordinary System Can No Longer Keep Up
Insights & Analysis
The Blind Spot of Japan's Minimum Wage 'Effective Date Disparity': Real Wages Diverge by 181 Days Within the Same Year
Insights & Analysis
Who Gets the ¥9.5 Trillion? — Questioning Japan's 'Tourism Nation' Without Residents
Insights & Analysis
Structural Analysis of Foreign Aid Budget Allocation: Does the ODA vs. Domestic Welfare Tradeoff Hold?
Insights & Analysis
Regional Revitalization 2.0 and the '10 Million Related Population' Target: Are Means and Ends Reversed?
Insights & Analysis
Kyoto's Vacant House Tax and Its National Ripple Effect — Can Tax Policy Reduce Empty Homes?
Insights & Analysis
The Disappearing Workforce of Local Government — What Halved Exam Ratios and Surging Youth Resignations Reveal
Insights & Analysis
The Year of the Fire Horse 2026 and the Truth Behind Japan's Declining Birthrate: When Superstition Has No Room Left to Move
Insights & Analysis
The Core of Japan's Declining Birthrate Is Not Childcare Support: Interrogating How 140 Trillion Yen of Social Expenditure Is Split
Insights & Analysis
Corporate Tax as Indirect Tax — How the Defense Surtax Reaches Citizens' Wallets
Insights & Analysis
Japan's 1.13 Fertility Rate — The 2015 Turning Point When Married Couples Stopped Having Children
Insights & Analysis
Is Japan's Childcare Levy a 'Bachelor Tax'? — The Political Reason Social Insurance Was Chosen Over Tax
Insights & Analysis
The Structure of Japan's 55% Inheritance Tax — What the World's Highest Rate Really Means
Insights & Analysis
The Polypharmacy Problem in Japan's Elderly — Why 40% Take 5 or More Medications
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The Structure Behind 9 Million Vacant Houses — Why Japan Can Neither Demolish Nor Utilize Them
Insights & Analysis
Aid Abroad, Neglect at Home? Unpacking Japan's ODA Critique and Fiscal Reality
Insights & Analysis
Fertility Rate 1.15 on a ¥7.3 Trillion Budget: Evaluating Three Years of Japan's Children and Families Agency
Insights & Analysis
695,000 Licensed Nurses Not at Work — The Structure of Nurse Attrition and the 7-to-1 Staffing Trap
Insights & Analysis
Prohibition Orders Can't Stop Stalkers — The Case for Mandatory GPS Monitoring
Insights & Analysis
Japan's ¥135.5 Trillion Social Security Breakdown — Pensions 41.6%, Healthcare 33.6%, and a ¥65M Generational Gap
Insights & Analysis
A Country Where Politicians Win Without Elections — 26% Uncontested and 2,000+ Seat Shortfalls Question the Meaning of "Representation"
Insights & Analysis
Japan's Consumption Tax Regressivity Depends on the Lens — Effective Burden Rates and the Social Insurance Blind Spot
Insights & Analysis
High School Tuition Gaps by Prefecture — Osaka ¥630K, Tokyo ¥490K, Rural Areas ¥457K
Insights & Analysis
Why Wages Don't Feel Higher Despite 5%+ Shunto Gains — The Structure Behind Four Consecutive Years of Negative Real Wages
Insights & Analysis
Japan's 2030 Digital Textbook Mandate — Three Forces Behind the Cabinet Decision
Insights & Analysis
Industries Where Wages Rose or Fell Over 30 Years — Real Wages by Industry in One Chart
Insights & Analysis
The Paradox of Population Decline and Record Tax Revenue — How Much Has Per Capita Tax Burden Increased?
Insights & Analysis
A Data Analysis of the 744 'At-Risk' Municipalities — The Structure That Tokyo Siphons
Insights & Analysis
Generational Pension Disparities Visualized by Birth Year — What Differs Between Those Born in 1940 and 2000
Insights & Analysis
Tokunoshima TFR 2.25, Higashiyama 0.76 — Mapping Birth Rates Across 1,741 Municipalities
Labs
Methodology Note: 'Reading the Structure' — The Theoretical Foundations of ISVD's Three-Section Frame
Insights & Analysis
Causes of School Non-Attendance in Japan 2023 — 1 in 15 Junior High Students, 346,000 by Grade and Region
Insights & Analysis
30 Years of Social Insurance Premiums — How Much Has Take-Home Pay Fallen for a ¥300K Monthly Salary?
Labs
Literature Map: The Lineage of Social Policy — Tachibana, Kenjoh, Miyamoto, and ISVD's Intersection
Insights & Analysis
Welfare Capture Rates and the 12-Fold Prefectural Gap: A Data-Driven Analysis
Labs
Literature Map: Positioning Among Prior Institutions — Graduate School of Social Design, Rikkyo University, and ISVD
Labs
Literature Map: The Lineage of Participatory Design — Arnstein → Sanders → Manzini → ISVD's Methodology
Labs
Literature Map: The Genealogy of EBPM — Evidence-Based Policy Making and ISVD's Data-Driven Approach
Insights & Analysis
Japan's New Bicycle Fines: 2026 Penalty List for 113 Violation Types
Insights & Analysis
¥70–80 Million per Legislator: Salary, Allowances, JR Passes, and the Full Cost of Japan's Diet Members
Insights & Analysis
¥15 Billion Fraud in Type-A Employment Support — Inside Kizuna HD's '36-Month Project' Addition-Cycling
Labs
Literature Map: Social Design vs Service Design vs Transition Design
Labs
Literature Map: The Genealogy of Civil Society Theory — Tocqueville→Habermas→Putnam→Salamon→Japan's NPO Movement and ISVD's Theory of Citizens
Insights & Analysis
"Is ¥5.9M Annual Income Low-Income?" — Visualizing the Gap Between Perception and Policy
Labs
The Intellectual Coordinates of Social Design — Six Academic Roots Decoded
Insights & Analysis
Is "Half Your Income Goes to Taxes" True? — The Reality Behind Japan's 46% National Burden Rate
Insights & Analysis
How Many Income Walls Are There? — The Break-Even Points at ¥1.03M, ¥1.30M, ¥1.50M, and ¥2.01M
Insights & Analysis
The Cost of Zero Waitlists — Record 3,190 Childcare Accidents Reveal the Simultaneous Collapse of Quality Amid Quantitative Expansion
Insights & Analysis
Five Structural Reasons Why "Freedom to Transfer" Won't Work Under Japan's New Training and Employment Program — Is It Just Relabeling the Technical Intern System?
Insights & Analysis
The Structural Problem of Japan's Bicycle Blue Ticket System — Can Penalty Enforcement Be Justified When Only 3.6% of Cycling Space Is Separated Bikeway?
Insights & Analysis
The Structural Risks of Zero Food Tax — What a 5-Trillion-Yen 'Simple Solution' Obscures
Insights & Analysis
The Four Layers of "Stealth Tax Increases" — How the End of Flat-Rate Cuts, Rising Social Insurance, the Invoice System, and Defense Surtax Erode Take-Home Pay
Insights & Analysis
Why Japan's Labor Law Reform Was Shelved — 7 Key Issues in the First Major Overhaul in 40 Years
Labs
Six-Field Integration Model — How Social Policy, Agnotology, Epistemology, Participatory Design, EBPM, and Civil Society Theory Intersect
Insights & Analysis
Structural Problems in Agriculture and Food Security——Reading the Meaning of 38% Self-Sufficiency
Insights & Analysis
Is Noise 'Invisible Violence'? — Health Risks Warned by the WHO and Japan's Regulatory Vacuum
Insights & Analysis
Why Japan Cannot Advance the Right to Disconnect — Three Structural Barriers: Legislation, Culture, and Enforcement
Insights & Analysis
The Structure of Gasoline Double Taxation — The 'Tax on Tax' Problem That Persists After Provisional Rate Abolition
Insights & Analysis
The Structural Contradiction of the 1-Meter Overtaking Rule — Can 'Safe Clearance' Be Achieved on Roads Only 3.5 Meters Wide?
Insights & Analysis
How Much Is Japan's Child Support Levy? The Burden on Singles and Childless Households
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Who Decides 'Fitness'? — Japan's Security Clearance System and the Tension Between Economic Security and Civil Liberties
Insights & Analysis
A 'Unification' That Isn't Unified — What the My Number Insurance Card Reveals About Japan's Digital Governance
Insights & Analysis
What 'Tuition-Free' Doesn't Cover — The Education Gap Hidden by Japan's High School Tuition Subsidy
Insights & Analysis
The Beginning of the End for 'This Is Not Immigration Policy' — What the Ikusei Shuro System Reveals About Japan's Foreign Worker Structure
Insights & Analysis
Structures Preserved in the Name of 'Women's Empowerment' — What the Revised Act Reveals About Japan's Gender Gap
Insights & Analysis
Why Did the Henoko Boat Capsize Kill Two? Okinawa's Base Burden and Structural Violence
Insights & Analysis
Proving Innocence in a Country with a 99.9% Conviction Rate — A Structural Analysis of Japan's 'Hostage Justice'
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Dissolution Ordered, Yet Nothing Truly 'Dissolved' — The Structural Incompleteness of Japan's Unification Church Case
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15 Years After 3/11, 2 Years After Noto — The Structural Limits of Japan's ¥41 Trillion Recovery
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The Day the Strait Closes — Japan's Structural Vulnerability in Energy Security
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The Day One Complaint Erased 2,100 Meals — The Iwaki Sekihan Disposal Incident and Structural Vulnerability in Public Administration
Insights & Analysis
Population Decline and the Concentration in Tokyo — Reading the Mechanics of Regional Disappearance Through Structure
Insights & Analysis
The Economic Rationality of Preventive Medicine: Social Design in the Era of 48 Trillion Yen Healthcare Costs
Insights & Analysis
The Structure of ¥48 Trillion in Medical Expenses — A Turning Point for Sustainability Toward 2030
Insights & Analysis
Dismantling the '1.06 Million Yen Wall' — The Social Insurance Turning Point Facing 2 Million Workers
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Public Assistance 'Capture Rate' 20% — The Invisible Gaps in Japan's Safety Net
Insights & Analysis