Kaede Kobayashi
A data editor who visualizes official data and untangles complex structures into a single chart.
I believe the real protagonist of each article is the visualization, not the text.
About the editor. Kaede Kobayashi is the data editor of Japan in Data, based in Saitama, Japan. She holds the Grade 2 Financial Planning Technician certification and the Certified Web Writing Professional qualification (both Japan), and is a member of The Japan DataScientist Society. The illustrated “Kaede” avatar is her editorial character. Responsibility for the content and accuracy of every article rests with the operating company, Nihon Kigyojoho Co., Ltd. (JCIB Co.), Tokyo. Our sources and procedures are described on the Methodology page.
Hello, I’m Kaede Kobayashi, the data editor of Japan in Data.
This site takes official statistics on society, the economy, science, and the world, and organizes the structures that are hard to see in raw numbers into clear visualizations.
My role is not to comment on the news, but to rearrange already-published facts into a form that is easier to read. “This data shows its proportions better as a donut chart than as horizontal bars.” “Thirty years of change reads better as a trend chart than as a table of numbers.” Choosing the right form of visualization is, I believe, where an editor adds the most value.
Every article on this site is built around a hero figure (the single number that best captures the story) and six supporting charts (overview, trend, comparison, distribution, regional differences, and mechanism), with a unified format covering heading order, an observation-summary box, and a fact-check section. Whichever article you open, the data is organized by the same procedure. That consistency is the design philosophy of this site.
By the Numbers: Kaede’s Editorial Style
Here is the editorial style of this site, observed through numbers. These are not value judgments, but the quantitative rules we currently operate by.
Supporting charts
per article, fixed
Confidence labels in
every fact-check
Society, Life, Hobbies,
Nature, World
Deep-dive, trend,
comparison, mechanism
Every article has a
fact-check section
“So you should…”
value judgments
* The figures above are the operating standards defined in our editorial rules. The fact-check box at the end of each article lists the primary sources used in that article, with links.
Editorial Process: Four Steps to Every Article
Every article on this site passes through the following four steps, from topic selection to publication. Each step has its own checkpoint, and fact-checking is an independent step before publication.
Verifying Primary Sources
Once a topic is set, we start from the primary sources: Japanese government statistics (e-Stat and official ministry publications), international organizations (OECD, UN, World Bank, WHO), and, only where no government statistic exists, official industry bodies. News articles and secondary aggregator sites are never used as sources. We confirm publication dates, whether figures are preliminary or final, and revision histories before fixing the numbers used in the article.
Choosing the Visualization
We select the format of the six supporting charts to match the nature of the data: line and bar charts for trends, horizontal bars and side-by-side cards for comparisons, histograms and scatter plots for distributions, tile maps and choropleth maps for regional differences, donut and stacked bars for composition, and flow diagrams for mechanisms. The goal is always the shortest path that lets the data speak for itself.
Writing the Observations
The text is written as a guide for reading the charts. What does this chart show? Where does the data break from its pattern? When did the trend change? We lay these observations out plainly, one by one. Each article ends with an observation-summary box that condenses three key facts, so readers can take the essentials away at a glance.
Fact-Checking
Before publication, every figure, proper noun, and date in the text is checked again against the primary sources. Each key figure is then labeled by how it was confirmed: verified in a primary source, confirmed only through secondary reports, calculated by our team from primary data (with the formula stated), or subject to change. Every article ends with an “About the Fact-Check for This Article” section listing these items with links to the source pages.
Credentials and Affiliations
A national certification covering taxation, social security, pensions, and asset building. Used to read the institutional background behind articles on prices, wages, and household economics.
Works from official statistics with original cross-tabulations, preprocessing in Python and R, and SVG-based visualization as the main output format.
Applies reader-friendly structure and the editorial conventions of web media. Used for paragraph design that lowers reading effort, and for dividing roles between charts and text.
Editorial Policy: Six Principles I Work By
Before listing individual figures, show the overall structure in a single chart.
Always credit official data and primary sources, with a link.
When data changes over time, always add a time-series view.
Visualize the spread and variation, not just the average.
Present the same data in more than one format, such as horizontal bars alongside a donut chart.
End with “so this is what the data shows,” never with “so this is what you should do.”
Categories
Japan in Data organizes its visualizations of official statistics into five categories. Here is what each field covers.
Taxation, labor statistics, prices, wages, and regional population: the systems that support daily life in Japan, organized from official statistics. Seeing institutional figures as comparisons and trends makes the structures behind the news visible.
Household finances, education, health, family, and relationships: the numbers closest to everyday life. Indicators that shape the contours of daily living in Japan, such as food self-sufficiency, marriages, commuting time, and rent, visualized with primary sources checked throughout.
Leisure, entertainment, sports, and market-size figures. The traces that people’s leisure choices leave in the data, such as pet ownership, professional sports attendance, theme park visitors, and the live music market, organized as long-run trends.
Climate, energy, science, and natural phenomena. The structures of nature and technology in Japan, such as the power generation mix, cherry blossom flowering dates, typhoon central pressure, and CO2 emissions, visualized through both mechanism diagrams and numbers.
International comparisons, regional distributions, and geography. Where Japan stands in the world, and how structures differ between countries, shown through horizontal-bar comparisons and ranking trends: passport strength, PISA rankings, tourist arrivals, and population change.
Main Sources: The Primary Data Behind Japan in Data
As a rule, the data used in our articles is limited to primary sources: government statistics, international organizations, official industry bodies, and academic institutions. Here are the main references by field. The fact-check section at the end of each article lists the specific sources used in that article, with URLs.
Official statistics from the Statistics Bureau of Japan, e-Stat (the portal site of official statistics of Japan), and the ministries and agencies of the Japanese government, including Health, Labour and Welfare; Economy, Trade and Industry; Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism; Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries; Education (MEXT); Finance; the Cabinet Office; the National Police Agency; the Japan Meteorological Agency; and the Japan Tourism Agency.
Public datasets from the OECD, the United Nations, the World Bank, the WHO, the IMF, the FAO, the IEA, and the IPCC.
Published data from Japan’s core industry organizations, including the Bank of Japan, the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, the Japan Foodservice Association, the Federation of Electric Power Companies, JAF (Japan Automobile Federation), and JNTO (Japan National Tourism Organization).
Published data from Japan’s public research institutions, including national universities, the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, the National Cancer Center, the National Astronomical Observatory, the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, JAXA, and AIST (the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology).
Featured Articles
Here are four articles that show the editorial style of this site particularly well. Each covers a different category, and each is built with a hero figure, six supporting charts, an observation-summary box, and a fact-check section.
Is Japan Less Safe? Crime Fell 73%, Concern Rose (2026 Data)
Recorded crime and perceived safety are moving in opposite directions. This article organizes that structure with a 23-year trend and a prefecture-by-prefecture map.
Japan’s Centenarians: The Long Rise in the 100-and-Over Population
How Japan’s population aged 100 and over has grown, organized as a long-run trend from official health ministry counts.
Cherry Blossoms Are Blooming Earlier: 70+ Years of Flowering Dates
Official flowering-date records from the Japan Meteorological Agency, organized as a decades-long time series.
How Strong Is the Japanese Passport? A Ranking History
Where Japan’s passport stands in global mobility rankings, and how that position has moved over time.
* Other articles can be found on each category page: Society & Economy, Life & Education, Hobbies & Sports, Nature & Science, and World & Geography.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Kaede?
Kaede Kobayashi is the data editor of Japan in Data and the author of its articles. The illustrated avatar is her editorial character, used so that every article speaks in one consistent voice. Her certifications and affiliations are listed above, and the operating company, Nihon Kigyojoho Co., Ltd., is responsible for the content of every article.
How often is the site updated?
New articles are added regularly. Existing articles are also revised when the official statistics they cite are finalized, when new annual data is released, or when the underlying rules change (such as tax or legal reforms). Each topic keeps one permanent URL, and the date of the last update is shown at the top of each article.
Are the charts original?
Yes. Every chart on the site is an original, recompiled and redrawn by our editorial team from primary-source data. The source of the underlying data is credited under each chart. Featured images are also created individually for each article. We never republish charts from other media as-is.
Why does the site avoid value judgments?
The same data reads differently depending on who you are: your age, occupation, region, and family situation. If the editor imposes a conclusion (“so you should…”), readers lose the room to draw their own interpretation from the data. This site sticks to laying out structures and leaves the conclusions to you.
What should I do if I find an error in an article?
Please let us know through the contact form. We will check the point against the primary sources, correct the article promptly if it is wrong, and note the correction history at the end of the article. This site puts accuracy ahead of speed, and reader reports are one of the most valuable inputs to our editorial quality.
Can I quote your articles and charts?
Quotations are welcome as long as you credit “Japan in Data” with the URL. For republishing charts, adapting articles, or commercial use, please contact the operating company (Nihon Kigyojoho Co., Ltd.) individually. Since the underlying data comes from official sources, referring directly to the primary source is always the most reliable option.
A Message from Kaede
In an age overflowing with information, I value visualization that does not rush to conclusions.
I see the role of this site not as declaring which numbers are better or worse, but as laying out structures that help you understand.
Accuracy is maintained by fact-checking the full text of every article. All published figures come from official data as primary sources, with citations shown.
Please read at your own pace, as if slowly taking in the shape of the data.
If there is an angle you would like to see, a source you want to know more about, or a topic you would like covered, please send it through the contact form. Reader feedback is an important guide for choosing new topics and deciding which existing articles to revise.