The project Serial Solitudes: Audiovisual Cultures of Loneliness and Belonging in Contemporary Japan starts from the assumption that loneliness is not only an individual psychological experience, but also a socially and culturally shaped phenomenon articulated through different forms of knowledge. It therefore combines two forms of discourse analysis: scholarly debates on loneliness and audiovisual representations in films and television series. This presentation introduces the project at an early stage to discuss its methodological design. A key challenge is gaining systematic access to Japanese vocabulary and literature on loneliness without reducing the field to familiar concepts such as hikikomori or kodokushi. To address this, a source-based text-mining workflow supported by language models is being developed around sixty Japanese books, supplemented by Japanese translations of influential Western works. The presentation will outline the workflow, show preliminary examples, and invite discussion of its possibilities and limitations. Details and registration here