Terms of Use

All analytical data independently generated by Machikarte (including AHS / deferral rate / KTR scores, theme classifications, summaries, rankings, etc.) is available for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. No special permission is required to use it for research, journalism, education, or policy advocacy.

Source materials (each municipality's council minutes, the Ministry of Internal Affairs settlement cards, and other public documents) are governed by the terms of use of their respective publishers.

When citing Machikarte data in articles, papers, or other publications, please credit it as follows.

Source: Machikarte (https://machikarte.isvd.or.jp/) CC BY 4.0
Retrieved: YYYY-MM-DD

For social-media citations and shares, the site name "Machikarte" and the URL are sufficient.

Data accuracy

Machikarte does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or recency of the data. For original minutes text or the latest information, please consult the official site of each municipality. The operator is not liable for any damages arising from use of this service.

The nature of the scores

QQS / RQS / AHS and other scores are not metrics for deciding whether a council is "good" or "bad". They are quantitative descriptions of structural features of council deliberation (such as the concreteness of questions or the directness of answers). They must not be used to criticize or attack specific municipalities or members.

Machikarte collects public documents such as council minutes from each municipality by means of automated crawling. We comply with the following policies during crawling.

• We comply with each municipality's robots.txt.
• Request intervals are at least 1 second to avoid overloading servers.
• Collection is limited to public documents (such as council minutes).

The following uses of the data are prohibited.

• Harassment and defamation — using the data to defame, harass, or attack specific individuals (lawmakers, staff, etc.).
• Unauthorized election campaigning — unauthorized use in election campaigning that supports or opposes a specific candidate.
• Fabrication — manipulating or selectively quoting the data to create content that gives a factually incorrect impression.

The interpretation and application of these Terms of Use are governed by the laws of Japan.

Any dispute arising between the operator and a user in relation to these Terms or to the use of Machikarte shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Tokyo Summary Court or the Tokyo District Court in the first instance, depending on the amount in dispute.

However, if the user qualifies as a “consumer” under Japan's Consumer Contract Act, their rights under that Act are not waived. The consumer's right to choose jurisdiction and other rights under the Consumer Contract Act are not restricted by these Terms.

For questions about these terms, reports of data errors, or any other inquiries, please contact us at the following channel.

Email: contact form

Operator: Institute for Social Vision Design (ISVD), a Japanese general incorporated association

* The governing language of these Terms is Japanese. This English translation is provided for reference; in the event of any conflict, the Japanese version (/terms) prevails.