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Cultural traits evolve in structured space.

Ayaka Onohara（小野原 彩香）

From the perspective of evolutionary anthropology and cultural evolution, I study Spatial Cultural Dynamics — the dynamics of cultural traits in structured space.
Focus: Japanese dialects (pitch accent, lexicon) & emotion maps of place  ·  Methods: Bayesian phylogeography · text embeddings · generative models

Affiliation: Hokusei Gakuen University, School of International Studies, Associate Professor (Apr 2026–present)
Research areas: Linguistics, language evolution, cultural evolution, speech & pitch accent, GIS, quantitative/statistical modeling
Education: Ph.D., Culture and Information Science, Doshisha University, March 2014

News

2026.04.30
Publication: Proceedings paper "GAN-Based Modeling of Emotional Dynamics in Cultural Evolution and Niche Construction: An Integrated Empirical Approach" (with Hiroki Ouchi) was published in Proceedings of WCTP 2025 (Atlantis Press, pp. 499–519) (DOI: 10.2991/978-94-6239-638-8_25).
2026.04.01
Appointment: Started as Associate Professor at the School of International Studies, Hokusei Gakuen University. Currently teaching "Introduction to Information."
2026.04.01
Publication: Single-authored paper "Dialogue with the Inner Other: A Practical Report on Learning Support in Statistics Exercises Using Generative AI" was released as an advance publication in Journal of the Japan Association for Developmental Education (DOI: 10.18950/jade.2026.03.10.01).
2026.03.18
Outreach: As a member of the FOSS4G 2026 Hiroshima Local Organizing Committee (LOC), released the Childcare & Family-Friendly Policy.
2025.12.01
Conference: Presented "GAN-Based Modeling of Emotional Dynamics in Cultural Evolution and Niche Construction" (with Hiroki Ouchi) at Workshop on Computation: Theory and Practice (WCTP) 2025.
2025.11.19
Conference: Presented "Evaluating LLMs as Intermediaries for FOSS4G CLI-based Geospatial Analysis" (with N. Iwasaki) at FOSS4G 2025.

Career

Apr 2026–present
Hokusei Gakuen University, School of International Studies, Associate Professor
Apr 2022–Mar 2026
Rikkyo University, Center for Social Information Education and Research, Assistant Professor
Apr 2018–Mar 2022
University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Science, JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow (PD)
May 2019–Mar 2021
Research interruption (childbirth and childcare, 2nd child)
Oct 2016–Mar 2018
University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Science, JSPS Research Fellow (RPD)
Apr 2015–Sep 2016
University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Science, JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow (PD)
Oct 2013–Mar 2015
Research interruption (childbirth and childcare, 1st child)
Apr 2013–Mar 2014
Doshisha University, Graduate School of Culture and Information Science, JSPS DC2 Fellow

Full career history (researchmap)

Awards

Oct 2023
Best Poster Award — "Estimating vineyard suitability using machine learning"
GIS Association of Japan | N. Iwasaki, T. Tanaka, A. Onohara, K. Hayashi, M. Katori, T. Oguchi
Dec 2016
Young Researcher Award — "Role of population size in lexical/grammatical gain and loss"
Japan Human Behavior and Evolution Society | A. Onohara, Y. Ihara
Oct 2016
Best Poster Award — "Environmental and social factors associated with language loss and gain"
GIS Association of Japan | A. Onohara

Research Keywords

linguisticslanguage evolutioncultural evolutionSpatial Cultural Dynamicsspeech & pitch accentGISstatistical modelingBayesian phylogeneticsphylogeographyemotion mapslanguage phylogeneticscognitive maps

Theoretical Framework

Spatial Cultural Dynamics How cultural traits evolve in structured space
Space / Environment
place  ·  population  ·  network  ·  geography
↓
Affective & Social Layer
emotion  ·  evaluation  ·  cooperation  ·  interaction
↓
Cultural Traits
accent  ·  lexicon  ·  emotion map  ·  action style
↓
Evolutionary Dynamics
diffusion  ·  divergence  ·  convergence  ·  phylogeny  ·  simulation
↓
New niche / restructured environment
↺  feeds back into spatial structure

Research Themes

A Core: Spatial Cultural Dynamics B Adjacent: GeoAI / WebGIS D Methods & Education
A

Phylogenetic Analysis of Language Evolution

Using Bayesian phylogenetics to quantitatively reconstruct the evolutionary history of pitch-accent systems in Japanese dialects.

A

Speech & Pitch Accent Research

Developing novel analytical methods based on accentual class merger to investigate mechanisms of language change.

B

Geographic Information Science (GIS)

Integrating geospatial and linguistic data to analyze environmental and social factors associated with language loss and gain.

A

Evolutionary Approach to Emotion & Place

Investigating the emotional relationship between speech and place from an evolutionary perspective, examining the interaction between language and cognition.

Research Trajectory

🌳

Research Growth Tree

Interactive research phylogeny

Research Growth Tree

A phylogenetic diagram showing the growth of my research from roots to branches. From foundational work in 2010 to current AI-assisted educational applications.

  • 2010–2013: Dialect distribution & cultural region analysis
  • 2013–2017: Mathematical approaches to language dynamics
  • 2018–2023: Population-structure models of language change
  • 2024–: AI-assisted speech & educational applications
View interactive research tree

Teaching

Courses

I teach statistics, data science, and related topics including:

Python ProgrammingData analysis and visualization, fundamentals to applications
Generative AI ApplicationsEffective use in research and educational settings
Geographic Information SystemsSpatial data analysis and visualization

Full teaching history (researchmap)

Selected Publications

Representative Papers

  • A Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of pitch-accent systems based on accentual class merger: a new method applied to Japanese dialects.
    Takuya Takahashi; Ayaka Onohara; Yasuo Ihara. Journal of Language Evolution, 8(2):169–191, 2024.
    Role: Co-author  |  Peer-reviewed
    DOI: 10.1093/jole/lzae004   Zenodo DOI
  • A Inferring the temporal and spatial evolution of accent systems in Japanese dialects: a phylogeographic approach.
    Ayaka Onohara et al. Proceedings of JCoLE, 2022.
    Role: Lead author  |  Peer-reviewed
  • B Client-Side Web Mapping System for Vineyard Suitability Assessment.
    N. Iwasaki; K. Hayashi; T. Tanaka; M. Katori; A. Onohara; T. Oguchi. ISPRS Archives, 2022.
    Role: Co-author  |  Peer-reviewed
  • B Classification of land use/cover change in the Kanto region, Japan using FOSS4G and Open Data.
    N. Iwasaki; D. Sprague; A. Onohara. FOSS4G 2016 Proceedings, 2016.
    Role: Co-author
    DOI: 10.7275/R5PN93TQ
  • A Environmental and social factors associated with language loss and gain.
    A. Onohara. Proc. GIS Association of Japan 25, 2016.

Research Grants

  • A Elucidating the emotional relationship between speech and place using an evolutionary approach (2024–2027)
    PI | KAKENHI 24K16071
  • A Elucidating the function and role of accent using an evolutionary approach (2022–2024)
    PI
  • A Mathematical study of language change processes considering population structure (2018–2023)
  • A Quantitative evaluation of factors and genealogy of language change (2016–2019)

Full publication list    researchmap

Data & Code

I prioritize reproducible research and make data and code publicly available.

Pitch-accent phylogeography data & code

Full dataset and analysis code for "Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of pitch-accent systems…" (Journal of Language Evolution, 2024).

Zenodo CC BY 4.0
DOI 10.5281/zenodo.11154180

GitHub Repositories

Analysis code, teaching materials, and data preprocessing scripts.

aonoa68

Contact

I welcome inquiries regarding collaboration (cultural evolution / language evolution / GeoAI), lectures, and media interviews.