Keio Research Institute at SFC

Objectives

Due to the promotion of an open government, data possessed by Japan’s national government and local governments is being released to the public, and that data is being used to draft and evaluate public policies. Furthermore, ever since the United States presidential election in 2012, the use and application of election voting behavior data, preliminary survey data, SNS data, etc., continues to be promoted within national and local elections in Japan.

Against this background, this laboratory aims to collect, analyze, and visualize data regarding so-called “strategic information” such as politicians’ election campaign strategies and strategies relating to the public policies of the national government and local governments. In the field of data science on the other hand, the effectiveness of “strategic data analysis” is being pointed out mainly in business intelligence fields. “Strategic data analysis” is the method of first collecting data and obtaining an overall perspective on a business, then appropriately analyzing that data and making an accurate prediction before determining a business strategy. This laboratory applies strategic data analysis and polimetrics techniques to policy marketing fields, etc., and conducts applied studies towards personal (politicians, etc.) and institutional (national government, political party, local government) strategic decision making, particularly in the field of public policy.

Accordingly, this laboratory cooperates with the government of Japan, local governments, corporations, etc., and performs systematic studies on data acquisition, analysis, visualization, and evaluation regarding public policies and elections.

Specifically, this laboratory performs the following types of research:
(1) The analysis of data gathered from voting behavior surveys and preliminary surveys in national and local elections in Japan.
(2) The analysis and visualization of data relating to the drafting and evaluation of Japan’s public policies on a national and local government level.
(3) The analysis of surveys regarding mid- to long-term policy demands in depopulating societies.

More specifically, this laboratory promotes the following types of projects:
(1) To collect, analysis, and visualization of data on opinions regarding prefectural policies and the evaluation of measures using Kanagawa prefecture’s open data and SNS
(2) To collect and analysis of election data, preliminary survey data, and SNS data regarding the House of Councillors election in the summer of next year
(3) To collect and analysis of voting behavior data, preliminary survey data, and SNS data regarding local elections (including nationwide local elections this year)
(4) The analysis of Japan’s policy needs survey data conducted by private corporations

Overview of Research Activity Plan (July 1, 2015 – June 30, 2016)

• To collect, analyze, and visualize data on opinions regarding prefectural policies using Kanagawa prefecture’s policy data and SNS from the past 4 years
• To collect preliminary survey data and make preparations for analysis regarding the House of Councillors election in the summer of next year
• Policy needs survey conducted by private corporations

Researchers, managers and professors