INFRASTRUCTURE AND PUBLIC WORKS IN JAPAN
expensive highway project As of 2003, Japan spent $208 billion a year on public works projects such as highways, tunnels, dams and bridges. Construction consumes 40 percent of the national budget.
The Japanese government seems to have never met a public works project it didn't like. But the costs can be astronomical. Each year Japan spends more money on public works than was spent to build the entire Panama Canal. Osaka Bay has eight artificial islands and 95 percent of its 160-kilometer shoreline is reclaimed land. There are also large amounts of reclaimed land in Saga Prefecture.
The spending has been a contributor to a national debt that reached $6.4 trillion in 2003 and has taken money away from research and developments which could spark economic growth.
Over $2 trillion was spent on infrastructure projects in the 1990s, which some credit with staving off economic collapse. Richard Koo, an economic advisor to the LDP at the Nomura Research Institute, told the Washington Post, “You can bash public works all you want, but in this type of recession where companies and individuals have stopped spending, government expenditures become absolutely essential. We need speed more than anything in responding to this crisis...Our unemployment never went above 5.5 percent. Public works was an extremely effective fiscal stimulus even though a few projects were really stupid.”
Good Websites and Sources: Good Construction Photos at Japan-Photo Archive japan-photo.de ; Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism mlit.go.jp ; E-book: Japan Under Construction, Corruption, Politics, Public Works e-book escholarship.org ; New York Times article on Public Works as a Stimulus Measure nytimes.com ; Evaluation of Infrastructure pdf file Japan Society of Civil Engineers ; Public Works in Japan newslet.iss.u-tokyo.ac.jp ;NPR Story on Public Works and the Environment npr.org/templates/story
Major Public Works Projects: Seikan Rail Tunnel, WikipediaWikipedia ; Seikan Tunnel Aomori Government Map: Japan Lifestyle Japan Lifestyle ; Japan Visitor Japan Visitor ; Bridges and Dams Seto Ohashi Bridge (near Okayama)Wikipedia Wikipedia ; Akashi Kaikyo Bridge (near Kobe) Wikipedia Wikipedia ; Thirty Year History of High Roller Concrete Dams in Japan pdf file pwri.go.jp/eng/activity/pdf
Links in this Website: : UNNECESSARY PUBLIC WORKS PROJECTS IN JAPAN factsanddetails.com; OIL, COAL, NATURAL GAS AND ENERGY IN JAPAN Factsanddetails.com/Japan ; NUCLEAR ENERGY IN JAPAN Factsanddetails.com/Japan ; SOLAR, WIND AND ALTERNATIVE ENERGY IN JAPAN Factsanddetails.com/Japan ; URBAN TRANSPORTATION IN JAPAN Factsanddetails.com/Japan ; TRAINS IN JAPAN Factsanddetails.com/Japan ; SHINKANSEN (JAPANESE BULLET TRAINS) Factsanddetails.com/Japan ;
History of Public Works Projects in Japan
After World War II, the Japanese government funded many much needed public works projects that established one of the world's best infrastructures.
Kakuei Tanaka, the prime minister of Japan in the 1960s and 70s, was nicknamed the "Human Bulldozer" for his fondness for expensive public works projects including one system of roads that allowed him to drive from his office in Tokyo to his office in Niigata, a journey of four hours, making only three turns. Under his stewardship 10-year public works expenditures tripled from $37 billion to $105 billion.
By the 1980s most of the useful projects had been built. Then the government began funding unnecessary projects to provide employment in rural areas, where political power is proportionally higher than in urban areas, and provided contracts to construction companies the provide support and kickbacks to the ruling political party.
In the 1990s, the government turned to public works projects as a way of spending Japan out of recession, a Keynsian strategy that did not work. A total of 163 public corporations spent $50 billion a year of the taxpayers money and sucked up 40 percent of the national budget, with construction accounting for 9 percent Japan's GNP, compared 1 percent in the United States and 5 percent in Europe.
Dams in Japan
There are lots of dams in Japan. They have been built to generate electricity, control floods and provide irrigation water for agriculture. Japan uses it water supplies very cleverly. Often getting energy, irrigation water, and drinking water from the same dam. Even so many Japanese feel there are too many dams and environmental groups have joined with farmers worried about having their land submerged to protest the construction of new dams.
Share of the worlds dams: 1) China (45 percent); 2) the United States (14 percent); 3) India (9 percent); 4) Japan (6 percent); Other countries (26 percent).
Some prefectures have announced a cessation of all dam projects after they were deemed unnecessary for water supplies and flood control. A concrete dam proposed for a major river in Kumamoto was axed by the governor there on the grounds that it world upset the flow of rivers there that attract large numbers of tourists and fishermen seeking ayu sweetfish. See Nagano mayor.
Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge In 2008, Japan announced plans to build 182 new hydroelectric projects by 2030, up from the 38 it had originally projected, to create construction jobs and boost total hydroelectric power generation to 78.1 billion kilowatt hours.
Tokuyama Dam, Japan’s largest dam in term of water capacity, was opened in May 2008. Plans for the dam, which can hold 650 million tons of water, were announced in 1957 though construction did not begin until 2000. The dam cost $3.5 billion.
Some expensive dams have been white elephants. The $380 million Togo dam north of Furano in Hokkaido was built between 1977 and 1993 to hold back 4.3 million tons of water to be used in agriculture. Unfortunately though it began leaking after it opened through the loose volcanic soil at the base of the dam. Much of the money to build the dam came from local sources. Local farmers are angry. The repair bill has been estimated to be around $120 million.
See Hydropower Under Alternative Energies Under Energy
Bridges in Japan
The Akashi Kaikyo Bridge (7 miles west of Kobe) is the world's longest suspension bridge. Opened in April 1998 and connecting Kobe with Awaji-shima island, it is a 3,911 meters long, a few meters longer than the Great Belt Connection (connecting the islands of Funen and Zealand in Denmark), completed in 1999. The Akashi Kaikyo Bridge has been designed to resist powerful earthquakes and typhoons. Illuminated at night, it is a breathtaking sight referred to as the "Pearl bridge".
The world’s 10 longest suspension bridges (length and year completed as of 2007): 1) Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge, Japan (1991 meters, 6,529 feet, 1998); 2) Great Belt Bridge, Denmark (1,624 meters, 5,328 feet, 1998); 3) Runyang Bridge, China (1,490 meters, 4,888 feet, 2005); 4) Humber Bridge, Britain (1,410 meters, 4,626 feet, 1981); 5) Jiangyin Bridge, China (1,385 meters, 4,543 feet, 1999); 6) Tsing Ma Bridge, Hong Kong (1,377 meters, 4,518 feet, 1997); 7) Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, New York (1,298 meters, 4,260 feet, 1964); 8) Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco (1,280 meters, 4,200 feet, 1937); 9) Hogakustenbron, Sweden (1,210 meters, 3,970 feet, 1997); 10) Mackinac Bridge. Michigan (1,158 meters, 3,800 feet, 1957).
The Shimanami Route (between Onomichi on Honshu and Imbari on Shikoku) is 59-kilometer route with 10 suspension bridges of varying size that connect the main island Honshu (Hiroshima Prefecture) and Shikoku (Ehime Prefecture) and nine small islands in between. Opened in May 1999, it cost of $7 billion and the lives of seven men. The Shimanami Route includes the Tatara Bridge, which connects Ikuchi-jima and Omishima islands, the world's longest cable-styled bridge; and the 4,045-meter Kurushima Kaiyo Bridge, the first bridge in the world with three suspended sections.
Tunnels in Japan
The longest tunnel in the world is the 33.5-mile-long Seikan Tunnel under the Tsugaru Strait between the main Japanese island of Honshu and the largest island in the north, Hokkaido. The tunnels is nearly twice as long as any railroad tunnel constructed before it. The project began in 1964. Thirty-four men were killed before it was finished in 1988. Work began at both ends, with construction workers drilled and blasting through volcanic rock 800 feet below the turbulent Tsugaru Strait.
proposed new shinkansen
lines are very expensive In 1984, a 50,000-ton wedge of rock broke through the roof of a tunnel bored through a volcanic mountain on Hokkaido. The rock crushed a bus with 19 people on board and a car with a single occupant. There were no survivors in those vehicles.
In June 1999, a chunk of concrete fell from a tunnel in Fukuoka Prefecture and hit a passing train, causing the closing of the Shinkanensen. A survey after the accident found defects in more than half the highway tunnels and 20 percent of the highway bridges investigated.
There has been some discussion of building a tunnel between Kyushu in Japan and South Korea. It would be over 200 kilometers long and require engineering feats like those used to build the Chunnel; under the English Channel. If it were to be built it would be the deepest and longest tunnel im the world. One plan calls for the construction of three undersea tunnels linked by two small islands. The final stretch would be over 70 kilometers long and 140 meters deep. Such a project would take 10,000 workers 10 years to completer at an estimated cost of $25 billion. One person who has said he would back the project is the Rev. Sun Myung Moon.
The Kammon Tunnel, connecting Honshu with Kyushu, was the world’s first undersea tunnel. Completed in 1958, it is 3,461 meters long and connects Fukuoka on Kyushu with Shimonoseki in Honshu.
See Aqualine Below. Airports. See Air Travel Under Transportation
Local Government and Public Works in Japan
In recent years there has been a drive to decentralize power from the central government to local governments and one the biggest steps to making this happen is freeing the local government from the burden of financing extensive public works projects such as dams, expressways and Shinkansen rail lines dreamed up by the central government.
Large government projects, the central government pays two thirds and local governments pay a third. The system was set up under the notion that people who benefit from projects should pay for them. But in many cases the costs of projects outweigh the benefits.
Local governments complain they are “slaves” to the national government and their requests. Sometimes they are required to come up with billion of dollars to fund projects like highways, ports and train lines that were largely hatched without their consent by the national government
The Niigata prefectural government said it may defy a request by the central government to increase its spending on a Shinkansen project by ¥22 billion, arguing it would be too much of strain to come up with the extra money.
Hydro Power
Overseas Public Works Projects
With infrastructure projects drying up at home the government is looking more to win large overseas projects. With this goal in mind the Japanese government has stepped up diplomatic and lobbying efforts by the prime minister and senior government officials. Among the sectors that are being promoted are high speed railroads and nuclear power plants, The schemes also involve using loans from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, set up to help projects in developing countries, for project in developed countries.
The projects being pursued include high-speed railroads in the United States, water treatment facilities in Saudi Arabia and nuclear power plants in Vietnam and Turkey. These plans have been dealt several set backs. Unrest in the Middle East and Africa upset plans there. Fallout from the earthquake and tsunami in 2011 and Fukushima nuclear power plant crisis raised questions about Japan’s plans to build nuclear power plants abroad.
See High-Speed Train Deals
Image Sources: 1) 4) 5) 6) Ray Kinnane 2) Tepco 3) Japan Visitors 7) Benoa.net
Dams and Hydro Power TEPCO
Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Daily Yomiuri, Times of London, Japan National Tourist Organization (JNTO), National Geographic, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Reuters, AP, Lonely Planet Guides, Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.
Last updated July 2012