The motto of the JGSS Research Center at Osaka University of Commerce is “Openness, continuity, internationalism, and innovation.” This motto reflects the background behind the establishment of the JGSS Research Project and the efforts we have made so far.
Back in 1986 when I was studying at Stanford University, my supervisor sighed about the lack of open data sources in Japan. In Social Statistics class at the university, instructors would collect open data from data archives, including General Social Survey (GSS) data and store the data in large-scale computers, and students would analyze the data by applying statistical methods learned in class and write reports. Such coursework was made possible by the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), a data archive based at the University of Michigan. Through the payment of membership fees determined according to the scale of the university, the ICPSR allows the member universities and their students to access an extensive collection of downloadable data for educational and research purposes.
Among the publicly available datasets, the General Social Survey (GSS) stands out as a nationwide social survey launched in 1972 by NORC at the University of Chicago. By 2024, the GSS had conducted 35 surveys involving more than 79,000 respondents in total. Its cumulative dataset contains more than 6,000 variables, and GSS data have been used in more than 37,000 publications. More than 400,000 high school and university students also use GSS data in their classes each year. Similar surveys were launched in Germany in 1980, in the United Kingdom in 1983, and in Australia in 1984. In 1989, another professor at Stanford University gave me a catalog of survey data prepared by ICPSR, as thick as a telephone directory, saying, “Some Japanese universities have joined ICPSR.” At that time, however, membership in Japan was limited to a few universities, including Hokkaido University, Doshisha University, and Aoyama Gakuin University.
It was twelve years later, in the autumn of 1998, that the Japanese General Social Survey (JGSS) Project was started. This project was launched at the initiative of those Japanese researchers who benefited from GSS data while studying abroad in the 1980s; after returning to Japan, they advocated the necessity of conducting General Social Surveys regularly in Japan and making survey data publicly available, thereby allowing researchers unable to participate in nationwide surveys to access the data for research and educational purposes in the field of social statistics. The initiative was directed by the research group led by Ichiro Tanioka (President of Osaka University of Commerce) and the Institute of Social Science of the University of Tokyo, which had just started constructing the SSJ Data Archive at its Information Center for Social Science Research on Japan. The project had its secretariat at Osaka University of Commerce, and initially was financed jointly by Osaka University of Commerce and the University of Tokyo. In April 1999, the Institute of Regional Studies of Osaka University of Commerce was designated as a Key Institution on the Frontiers of Academic Projects (from FY1999 to FY2003) by the then Ministry of Education, and, after repeated discussions on the style and scope of survey to be conducted, the first regular survey “JGSS-2000” was launched in October 2000 under the JGSS Research Project.
Since then, we have brought together research topics proposed by researchers from a wide range of social science disciplines and conducted 21 nationwide surveys involving thousands of respondents through 2024, with the cooperation of more than 53,000 people in total. We have also published more than 60 volumes of research papers, academic books, statistical textbooks, reports, and codebooks. Rather than being used exclusively by the researchers involved in designing the surveys, the collected data are made publicly available mainly through the JGSS Data Download System (JGSSDDS), as well as through ICPSR and GESIS in Germany. Some earlier datasets also remain available from the SSJ Data Archive at the Institute of Social Science, the University of Tokyo. As of the end of March 2026, the cumulative number of uses of JGSS datasets and survey information had reached 829,822, and 2,468 publications using JGSS or EASS data had been registered. Researchers using JGSS data represent a wide variety of fields, including sociology, economics, demography, statistics, political science, psychology, education, linguistics, geography, public health, and agriculture.
In 2004, we were again designated as a Key Institution on the Frontiers of Academic Projects for FY2004–FY2008 under the MEXT Program for Promoting Advancement of Academic Research at Private Universities. Since JGSS-2005, we have publicly invited researchers to submit analytical research proposals to be examined through our surveys. Through this initiative and the annual call for papers using JGSS data, which began in 2003, we launched the JGSS Researcher Encouraging Program in 2005 to identify and foster promising young researchers. In 2006, we also started, as part of our JGSS Project, a collaborative research project with Taiwan, Korea, and China called the “East Asian Social Survey” (EASS) in order to conduct nationwide surveys comprising the same questions for these countries and region. The themes for the first module is Family (2006), followed by Culture (2008), Health (2010), Network Social Capital (2012), Work Life (2015). Since the 6th module, the theme for the first five module are repeated in order to capture the changes in ten years: the 6th theme is Family (2016/2017), followed by Culture (2018), Health (2021), and Network Social Capital (2023).
“Innovation,” part of the JGSS Research Center motto, represents our commitment to pursuing optimal survey design. JGSS is Japan’s first national survey to approach each respondent by means of both an interview and a self-administered questionnaire. We have also taken various measures to address the problem of the low response rate often experienced when conducting social surveys, and have succeeded in improving the response rate in our JGSS-2006. In 2005, when the Personal Information Protection Law went into effect, we conducted the “Survey on Data Access and Sampling,” and identified the policies of local governments on providing lists of residents for sampling purposes, and established guidelines for the collection of needed data from the complicated arrangement of personal information in the lists of residents held by local governments. In JGSS-2003, we addressed the issue of respondent networks, and made the world’s first attempt, by means of a nationwide survey, to clarify how discussions in the three areas of “personal problems,” “work,” and “politics” overlap. In EASS 2006 we adopted, for the questionnaire, alternatives to the attitudinal questions, which could be applied equally well in both societies where people are comfortable expressing their feelings on a topic, and to those where people are more reserved about doing so. In the JGSS-2009 Life Course Study conducted in January 2009, we attempted a realistic appraisal of diversifying employment practices.In the JGSS-2013 Life Course Study conducted in January 2013 (follow-up of JGSS-2009LCS), questionnaires are designed to avoid inconsistency between responses. Furthermore, in 2021 and 2022, we conducted consecutive surveys that included questions concerning attitudes and behavior related to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as questions shared with the European Social Survey. In the area of data dissemination, we have also developed JGSSDDS and an online data-analysis environment, making it possible for researchers and students to use the data more quickly and easily.
For more than a quarter of a century, the JGSS Research Project has pursued its motto of “openness, continuity, internationalism, and innovation,” while steadily accumulating research achievements, knowledge concerning survey research, academic materials and databases, and experience in joint research and the joint use of research resources with other universities.
In June 2008, we were designated as a key research institution under the “Program for Promotion of Joint Research Centers in Humanities and Social Sciences” by MEXT, in recognition of our achievement of significant research results and our support to the parties involved in the joint research and joint usage initiatives. This Program started in FY2008 with the aim of promoting joint research and joint usage of academic resources among researchers, not only in the fields of humanities and social sciences, but also across the different disciplines, thereby enhancing the standards of research in humanities and social sciences, and also creating new fields of research through the integration of different disciplines. For the first year of the Program, five academic institutions were designated as key research institutions, which, later, all passed the screening of MEXT and were accredited as “Joint Usage/Research Center” by the Minister of MEXT on October 1, 2008. The system of “Joint Usage/Research Center” was newly established in July 2008 upon revision of the Ordinance for Enforcement of the School Education Act, with an aim to encourage further development of Japanese academic research in general by upgrading research institutions selected for their high potentials, whether national, public, or private, to “Joint Usage/Research Center.”
The JGSS Research Center at Osaka University of Commerce was established in July 2008 to further enhance its research system as a Joint Usage/Research Center and to promote collaborative research with research institutions and researchers in Japan and abroad. Its accreditation by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology was renewed in April 2013, April 2019, and April 2025, and the current accreditation period runs through March 2031. The Center was also selected for MEXT’s “Program for Promotion of Unique Joint Research Centers: Promotion of Functional Enhancement” from April 2016 to March 2019 and again from April 2020 to March 2023. From October 2018 to March 2023, it served as a core institution in the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Program for Constructing Data Infrastructure for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through which it developed and strengthened data-sharing infrastructure, including JGSSDDS.
In concluding, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the more than 53,000 respondents who have generously cooperated with our surveys. I promise that the JGSS Research Center will remain fully committed to performing its role as a key joint research institution, under the leadership of the Steering Committee.
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