Investigation of the themes of public policy based on text analysis: Case of the discussion on public theatres in local councils and committees

Abstract

This paper conducts text analysis of the minutes of local councils and empirically examine the themes of public theatre, a kind of public facilities owned by local governments. It is expected that the analysis of the minutes is an effective tool for investigation of common topics for new policy of public theatre whose law was formulated recently. Until then, local governments had been engaged in it separately.

However, the research which targets the minutes of the local council has been appearing these days and there is still scope for development of the methodology dealing with the data of local councils, especially in the sense of investigation of problems. By analyzing the minutes of local councils, this study investigates what topics are discussed and what kinds or interests of citizens local governments recognize. As a result, it is found that the topics includes 1） financial cost of governments and citizens, 2） construction of cultural facilities, 3） management/running of cultural facilities, 4） activities of citizens and artists, and 5） topics which reflect the institutions of cultural policy. In addition, by comparing the appearance rate for the common topics between municipalities, the degree of interest of each city seemed different. For the future study, it is conceivable to verify the effectiveness of this analysis method by conducting additional research.