This is the twenty-first in the series of short statements from candidates in the coming CODATA Elections at the General Assembly to be held on 17-18 October 2025. Yasuyuki Minamiyama is a candidate for the CODATA Executive Committee as an Ordinary Member. He was nominated by Japan.

My expertise is interdisciplinary data curation methodologies, and I have conducted research on the sharing and reuse of research data. From 2019 to 2025, I participated in the Japanese national project for developing a national research data infrastructure and led research on the functional development of research data curation across various fields. I am currently working on upgrading the social survey data archives at the Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo, Japan.

In CODATA, I was initially involved in data-related activities since 2014 at the National Institute of Polar Research, one of the WDCs. In the context of my expertise, I led the launch of the data journal “Polar Data Journal” in collaboration with the WDS Sub-Committee of Science Council Japan. This is the first Research institution-led data journal initiative in Japan and has published a total of 58 data papers as of June 2025. I was also involved in CODATA activities as a member of the RDA/CODATA Legal Interoperability IG, which was established in 2013. I joined the IG in late 2016, and I launched a WG to discuss legal aspects of research data in RDUF (Research Data Utilization Forum) in Japan. RDUF is a potential counterpart of the RDA in Japan. I led the RDUF WG to discuss the possibility of its implementation in Japan and conducted research for localization. Finally, the WG developed a set of guidelines for practitioners, incorporating the essence of this guideline and reflecting Japanese legal practices.

In Japan, I have worked with researchers working with data in the humanities and social sciences to develop guidelines for the proper handling of data in the JSPS-led ‘Programme for Constructing Data Infrastructure for the Humanities and Social Sciences’ in 2021. I have also involved to write policy recommendations on open science by the Science Council of Japan in 2022. Since 2024, as chair of the RDUF’s planning committee, I have been working with data curators from various fields – earth sciences, life sciences, materials science, humanities and social sciences – to form a cross-disciplinary community. 

I am also actively involved in international networking, such as the Research Data Alliance (RDA) and the Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR). My recent activities include being a co-proponent of a session on Research data stewardship in the Asia Pacific at SciDataCon 2025.

Drawing on these experiences, I would like to further strengthen the relationship by intermediating CODATA’s initiatives with common Japanese data-related activities. I believe Japan has the potential to significantly expand its contribution to CODATA’s diverse and wide-ranging initiatives. I intend to participate in CODATA’s initiatives from the perspective of my expertise in data curation, as well as actively connecting Japanese stakeholders with CODATA’s initiatives and helping to expand the community.