Structural Analysis
6 items
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Disconnect Between Higher Education and the Labor Market — The Talent Universities Produce vs. the Talent Society Demands
Analyzing the structural mismatch between rising university enrollment and employment outcomes, and the disconnect between education and labor policy.
Structural Analysis of Social Issues — Using Systems Thinking to Visualize Why Problems Persist
Why do problems persist despite our best efforts? A guide to reading the structure of issues through systems thinking, with three practical tools.