A data lens on Japan's local democracy

MachiKarte structurally analyzes the minutes, budgets, and procurement records of 1,700+ Japanese local assemblies (prefectures, cities, wards, towns, and villages). We believe citizens should be able to judge their local politicians based on reproducible data rather than rumor or partisan framing.

What we publish

Assembly minutes analysis: Full-text minutes are parsed into question-response pairs. Each question is scored on logical structure, specificity, originality, and follow-up attention. Each response is scored on directness, specificity, data disclosure, and commitment.
“We will consider” tracking: When an official responds “we will consider it,” we track whether the issue was later addressed with a concrete action (budget line, ordinance, project launch). This reveals how often promises become shelved.
Fiscal transparency: Revenue, expenditure, bonds outstanding, and key ratios from the Ministry of Internal Affairs' official budget cards.
Procurement patterns: Winning bidders, designated managers, and concentration metrics (where available).
Cross-municipal insights: Ranking pages (quality, follow-through rate, theme distribution) and correlation analysis (population × discussion quality).

Core indicators

QQS — Question Quality Score

0–100 composite. Higher = more structured, data-grounded questions with follow-up attention to prior commitments.

RQS — Response Quality Score

0–100 composite. Higher = more direct, numerically specific, commitment-laden responses from officials.

AHS — Assembly Health Score

QQS × 0.4 + RQS × 0.6. The weighting reflects our belief that the material impact of an assembly's work is ultimately determined by how specific the executive response is, not just by how sharp the question is.

Follow-through rate (検討率)

The share of responses that use “we will consider” phrasing instead of committing to a specific timeline or plan. Lower is better. This metric is independent from AHS.

For researchers and journalists

All score data is freely available for research, reporting, and educational use. No special permission is required.

Data access

GET https://machikarte.isvd.or.jp/api/score-summaries

CORS-enabled JSON endpoint

Citation

MachiKarte (ISVD) — https://machikarte.isvd.or.jp/
Retrieved: YYYY-MM-DD

License: MachiKarte's derived analysis (scores, classifications, summaries) is released under CC BY 4.0. Source data (minutes, budget cards) remains under their respective government terms.

For collaboration, bulk queries, or methodological discussion: info@isvd.or.jp

Operator

MachiKarte is operated by 一般社団法人社会構想デザイン機構 (ISVD, Institute for Social Vision Design), a Japanese general incorporated association. ISVD is non-partisan and does not endorse any political party, candidate, or movement.

Website: isvd.or.jp

Methodology (English summary): /en/methodology

Methodology (Japanese full): /methodology

Operated by ISVD (Institute for Social Vision Design)