Center for Social Data Structuring

Pioneering the Future of Social Science through Data Provision and Methodological Research

The center for Social Data Structuring (CSDS) works to develop “social data” — for example, social-survey data covering individuals and organizations, official microdata based on statistical surveys conducted by government agencies and other public bodies, and social big data that measures social activity in real time through various devices — and to provide it to a wide range of stakeholders. Through this, the Center aims to promote empirical scholarship that helps solve social issues, and to contribute to the future of the social sciences through cutting-edge methodological research that develops the infrastructure technology needed to organize and use social data.

Our Activities

Corresponding to the fields from which data is obtained, CSDS is organized mainly into three groups, each pursuing the following projects.

1) Social Survey Related Project

We promote data collection through the formation of a nationwide joint survey network, as well as the organization and disclosure of social-survey data. We are advanciing projects including the curation and dissemination of large-scale academic survey data inherited from the Institute of Statistical Mathematics, the planning of surveys conducted jointly with researchers from other institutions and the sharing of that data (inter-university collaborative surveys), and research and dissemination on data lifecycle management (see Figure 1) and compliance issues associated with conducting social surveys.

2) Official Microdata Related Project

This project develops a shared system for official statistical data, researches and develops online data-analysis systems, and operates an on-site analysis facility (see Figure 2). We promote research on microdata security related to the safe disclosure of official microdata, the advancement of secondary use of official statistics, analysis and management of credit risk in the economic and financial fields, and Evidence-Based Policy Making (EBPM) using official statistics. We also serve as the secretariat for the Research Consortium for Official Micro-Data of Japan. Regarding statistical disclosure control, we have promoted the “Statistical Disclosure Control (SDC) Project” — a special project spun out of this project — since FY2025.

Project names and the “microdata”/“Research Consortium for Official Micro-Data of Japan” wording have been aligned with the Center’s own official English site (csds.rois.ac.jp/en), which uses these exact terms.

3) Social Big Data Related Project

With the advancement of IT, social phenomena — including human behavior — are now recorded electronically on a massive scale in nearly every setting. Deriving knowledge that can be returned to society by analyzing the patterns hidden within this enormous volume of social big data, using methods from econophysics and computational social science, is an important task, and we promote methodological research and joint research toward this end. We are also advancing methods, and the platforms, for managing shared-use data needed for research activities that use social science data among researchers from different organizations.