8 indicators — definitions, formulas, and limits, all open.

Every number in KOUSOU 0's reports and council cards comes with its formula, coverage, and known limitations. Please read the relevant indicator page before citing in journalism or research. Reproducible SQL and sample data are available for each indicator.

Updated: 2026.05.13·Peer review: ISVD Research Advisory Board·License: CC BY 4.0 (commercial use permitted)

View all indicators →Editorial policy

Image for the methodology page — PHOTO Illustration: Handwritten flowchart on grid paper (AI-generated / methodology)

3-layer indicator system

Quality of deliberation

Deferral Rate · Deliberation Tracker

Participation structure

Attendance Rate · Gender Speech Ratio · Faction Balance

Operational transparency

Assembly Health Score (AHS) · Information Transparency Score · Minutes Cadence

8 Indicators

Click an indicator row to view its full definition, formula, coverage, limits, references, and reproducible SQL.

Indicator	Category	Definition (one line)	Coverage	Update
Deferral Rate (Sakiokuri-ritsu)	Quality of deliberation	Share of executive responses containing non-committal phrasing	All councils in dataset	Monthly
Assembly Health Score (AHS)	Operational transparency	Composite score (0–100) calculated from 9 sub-indicators	Councils in dataset	Monthly
Deliberation Tracker	Quality of deliberation	Ratio of 5 statuses (under review / in progress / realized / frozen / unknown)	Councils in dataset	Monthly
Attendance Rate	Participation structure	Ratio of days present at plenary sessions and committees	All lawmakers	Monthly
Gender Speech Ratio	Participation structure	Seat share (female) ÷ speech-time share (female)	Councils in dataset	Monthly
Faction Speech Balance	Participation structure	Faction seat share vs. speech-time share	Councils in dataset	Monthly
Information Transparency Score	Operational transparency	Publication status of minutes, lawmaker profiles, and voting records	All municipalities	Quarterly
Minutes Publication Cadence	Operational transparency	Average days from plenary session to minutes publication	Councils in dataset	Monthly

How to read these indicators

None of the indicators rank councils or pass judgment. They are measuring instruments — yardsticks for making situations comparable.

4 things to keep in mind

Before citing any KOUSOU 0 indicator

Do not evaluate on absolute values alone — compare with councils of similar size and agenda composition.
Always check coverage — not every indicator is measured for every council. Each indicator card shows the number of covered councils.
Read the limits section— each indicator page has a "What this indicator does not capture" section. Read it before citing.
An objection channel is open — if you have concerns about indicator design, please use the objection form. Indicators currently under advisory peer review are flagged.

Data sources

All sources are public documents. KOUSOU 0 complies with each site's robots.txt and rate-limits (≥ 1 s between requests).

Assembly minutes

Full-text minutes scraped from each municipality's public minutes system (Sophia, Diet Lite, custom HTML, etc.).

Budget cards

Ministry of Internal Affairs annual decisional budget cards (PDF + machine-readable).

Procurement records

Where municipalities publish in structured form (CSV / API).

Citation format: KOUSOU 0 — https://kousou0.isvd.or.jp/ Retrieved: YYYY-MM-DD — License: CC BY 4.0 (commercial use permitted).

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8 indicators — definitions, formulas, and limits, all open.

Quality of deliberation

Participation structure

Operational transparency

8 Indicators

How to read these indicators

4 things to keep in mind

Before citing any KOUSOU 0 indicator

Data sources

Related publications from the KOUSOU 0 editorial team.

About KOUSOU 0

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