Research Director Hiroshi Deguchi (Professor, Faculty of Commerce and Business Administration)
Collaborative Researcher: Akagi Kaya (Full-time Lecturer, Platform for Arts and Sciences)

1. Overview of research results
This year, while proceeding with the construction of a platform system for accounting information processing as a program, Deguchi attempted to further expand the concept of production accounting. As a premise for expanding the concept of production accounting, he pointed out the problems caused by "embedding" in the institutional mechanisms of the modern economic system, particularly new mechanisms such as platform-type industrial structures and low-skilled labor and loosely coupled components, and proceeded with research into new paths to economic growth through "de-embedding."
This paper focuses on the "embeddedness" of economic activities, where economic agents are constrained by institutional mechanisms, particularly the contemporary tendency to treat labor as low-skilled, easily separable components. It points out that such mechanisms deprive workers of opportunities to improve their skills, potentially leading to unintended crises such as a decline in the quality of human capital and the polarization of society as a whole. To address this issue, I propose reinterpreting "consumption," which is typically treated as an expense in traditional economics, as "investment in human capital" within households. This introduces the concept of a "household boundary"—separate from the "production boundary" where corporate activities take place—where "life services" (e.g., food, childcare, and education) are produced within households and invested in maintaining and improving human capital, such as individual skill level (SKL) and quality of life (QOL). As a result, I propose the introduction of a new accounting methodology, "life service accounting," which further expands on "production accounting," which describes the production and input of corporate production activities and life services in households. This will open up a new research field that visualizes value formation and human capital dynamics within households, which have been overlooked until now.
Akagi has been researching the role of mechanistic evidence in addressing the complex social issues that underlie these challenges, and has also been organizing a library of programs necessary for this purpose.

2. Books, papers, academic presentations, etc.
[Books and papers (non-peer reviewed)]
1. Hiroshi Deguchi, The scope of EBPM: The current state and future of evidence-based policy formation in Japan, Planning and Administration, 47(4), pp.3-8, 2024-11-15,
2. AKAGI Kaya, The Role of Mechanistic Evidence in Addressing Complex Social Problems: Model and Data Requirements in EBPM+, Planning and Administration 47(4) pp.27-32, 2024-11-15
[Conference presentations, etc.]
1. Hiroshi Deguchi, New accounting information processing by expanding the concept of bookkeeping, Research Forum CUC Research Institute, February 5, 2025,
https://www.cuc.ac.jp/institute/symposium/2024/detail11.html
2. Hiroshi Deguchi, Economics as an Indirect Control Theory of Value-Added Networks, Fellow Inaugural Lecture: Society of Evolutionary Economics, Kansai University, March 23, 2025
3. Hiroshi Deguchi, Mechanisms and Embeddings in Economic Systems, The 29th Annual Meeting of the Society for Evolutionary Economics, Kansai University, March 22, 2025