How can we encourage public participation in discussions on climate change and other environmental problems, energy issues, and the social impacts of emerging technologies? How can we make good use of the results of public discussions to inform policy decisions?

Citizensassembly.jp features our research activities related to such themes. We are conducting practical research based on the perspectives of science and technology studies as well as sociology and other related fields, focusing on a type of process or institution called mini-publics, wherein participants are randomly selected from the population to represent a microcosm of society and discuss various policy issues.

Citizens’ assembly is one of most representative and full-scale formats among public participation methods. In a citizens’ assembly, dozens to hundreds of participants gather to discuss a socially controversial issue for several weeks or months. They study evidence provided by expert/stakeholder witnesses, deliberate on the issue among themselves, and formulate policy recommendations. There are a lot of instances of this method actually being used for national and local policymaking in Canada and European countries.

Thus, we named this website “Citizensassembly.jp” to broadly explore the possibility of application and dissemination of various participatory methods, including citizens’ assembly, throughout Japan.

For details on our research and practice, please visit the individual project pages.

September 2020
Administrators of Citizensassembly.jp

Administrators

Naoyuki Mikami and Ekou Yagi are editors and administrators of Citizensassembly.jp in association with project members and staff as well as other collaborators. One or both of the administrators play(s) a leading role in every featured project.

Project members

The following researchers and practitioners have collaborated with the administrators as full members in one or more projects featured on Citizensassembly.jp.