Yoshinobu Kano

Simulation of Social Mental States and Public Opinion Formation Processes

Grant No.：JPMJPR2461

Researcher

Yoshinobu Kano

Outline

Policies are shaped through interactions with people’s opinions and emotions, and these interactions are primarily mediated by social media networks, parliamentary debates, and the mass media. In this study, we refer to the collection of people’s opinions as public opinion and the collection of emotions as the social collective mental state. We will develop a system that infers personal attributes and mental states, as well as a system that predicts the diffusion of information and changes in individual opinions and emotions. By doing so, we aim to simulate the processes of public opinion and social mental state formation to support policy decision-making.

Shusaku Sasaki

Policy Targeting through a Combination of ‘Self-Determination’ and ‘Delegation to Others’

Grant No.：JPMJPR2462

Researcher

Shusaku Sasaki

Outline

I integrate insights from behavioral science and information science to evaluate, through field experiments, the impact of choosing between “self-determination” and “delegation to machine learning-based personalized targeting” on both individual and social welfare. I also analyze the mechanisms behind people’s policy choices based on the experimental results and construct a decision-making model. I further develop policy communication strategies, such as nudge-based messages, to encourage voluntary changes in choices when individual or social welfare deteriorates.

Yuya Shibuya

Human Mobility Simulations for Addressing Socioeconomic Inequality in Cities

Grant No.：JPMJPR2463

Researcher

Yuya Shibuya

Outline

Interacting with diverse people and places has the potential to prevent isolation, promote empathy across differences, and reduce conflicts. This research aims to understand people’s interactions and experiences in urban spaces and how to design such interactions. By building and analyzing the human mobility dataset, the research will develop a simulation to evaluate the diversity and inclusiveness of urban spaces in various scenarios.

Masamichi Shimosaka

Semantic Crowd Flow Analytics with Location and Search Query Big Data

Grant No.：JPMJPR2464

Researcher

Masamichi Shimosaka

Outline

This project pursues the foundational technology of the next stage of crowd flow analytics, “Semantic Crowd Flow,” by leveraging big data from crowd location and search queries. This project involves developing methods to capture the characteristics of visitors’ interests and predict visitors’ behavior using this big data. The feasibility study of these techniques will be validated in collaboration with researchers in other domains, and practitioners in industries for practical applications.

Hirohiko Suwa

Design and development of an acceptable monitoring society for the realization of Society 5.0.

Grant No.：JPMJPR2465

Researcher

Hirohiko Suwa

Outline

This study aims to address the broad question, “What kind of society is an accepted monitoring society?” and to explore the ideal form of a safe and secure personal information flow based on the interconnection of IoT devices. The goal is to design and develop the necessary personal information flow infrastructure and core technologies. Specifically, the objectives are: (1) to construct a model for determining the acceptance of personal information circulation, (2) to build a personal information circulation infrastructure, and (3) to conduct a social implementation experiment of the personal information circulation infrastructure.

Ryo Takahashi

Enhancing Forest Conservation through Competition and Collaboration in Management

Grant No.：JPMJPR2466

Researcher

Ryo Takahashi

Outline

This study proposes a new forest management system incorporating competition and collaboration to address the global issue of deforestation. To evaluate the effectiveness of this system, I conduct social experiments in both virtual and real-world settings. In the virtual environment, I use a originally developed game application to simulate forest management and assess the impact of policies on resource conservation. In the real-world setting, this study implements the new forest management system in Bangladesh and use drone-based measurements to quantitatively evaluate its effect on forest carbon conservation.

Yuki Nozaki

Development of a model of the psychological mechanisms explaining the enhancement of autonomous emotion regulation through interaction with conversational AI

Grant No.：JPMJPR2467

Researcher

Yuki Nozaki

Outline

With the development of large language models, there has been progress in the development of conversational AI that can be used for encouragement and consultation. On the other hand, there are also concerns that excessive reliance on AI could undermine human autonomy. This research will construct a model of the psychological mechanisms explaining the enhancement of autonomous emotion regulation through interaction with conversational AI, based on a theoretical framework of psychology that respects human dignity while being supported by scientific evidence. It will contribute to the realization of a society in which humans and AI thrive together.

Tomohiro Hara

Inter-Group Conflicts and Radicalization: Multi-Dimensional Measurements and Policy Interventions

Grant No.：JPMJPR2468

Researcher

Tomohiro Hara

Outline

Achieving a world free from terrorism and conflict requires a deep understanding of individual ideologies and preferences, as well as policies that are grounded in realities. This research establishes a foundation for measuring the degree of conflict and radical ideologies multi-dimensionally and quantitatively, which is crucial for policymaking. Applying these measures, we conduct field experiments to assess the effectiveness of (1) policies aimed at mitigating ethnic and religious conflicts and preventing radicalization among high-risk individuals through market-based approaches, and (2) information-based policy interventions designed to de-radicalize former combatants of extremist organizations and support their reintegration into society.

Ryohei Hisano

Ontology Design and Graph Analysis for Advanced Legal Structural Analysis

Grant No.：JPMJPR2469

Researcher

Ryohei Hisano

Outline

This research aims to develop advanced dynamic network analysis techniques, incorporating hypergraph change-point detection and time-lagged correlation structures, supported by structured narrative analysis. The project leverages a vast array of legal and public data sources, including 7 million U.S. court rulings from the past 250 years, 120,000 Japanese court rulings provided through industry collaborations, all publicly available rulings from the Japanese Supreme Court (16,000 cases), 10,000 rulings from the German Supreme Court, data from the Economy Watchers Survey, and public comments collected through Japan’s e-Gov platform. By integrating these diverse datasets, the research will create sophisticated tools for dynamic, collective-directed network analysis, with the potential to offer new insights into legal, economic, and social trends across multiple jurisdictions.

Mizuki Miura

Toward Resolution of Risk Perception Paradox - Sealfee: The Personalized Behavior Change System for Disaster Preparedness -

Grant No.：JPMJPR246A

Researcher

Mizuki Miura

Outline

As natural disasters become more severe and frequent, it is important to prepare for disasters during peacetime, and there are many different types of preparatory actions. However, the “Risk Perception Paradox” of people recognizing the importance of a risk but not taking action is becoming a problem. In this research aims to resolve and mitigate the Risk Perception Paradox through the development and evaluation of a disaster prevention behavior change system that features: 1) individual risk assessment, 2) automatic generation of an action plan tailored to the individual, and 3) automatic adjustment according to the user’s reaction.