●Messages from Departments and Centers of NILIM

Perspectives of Providing and Managing Public
Infrastructure for the Next Generation
KISHIDA Hiroyuki, Dr. Eng.
Executive Director for Research Affairs and Director of the Research Center forLand and Construction Management(Keywords) National land management, construction management, stock management
1. Introduction
A country with a rugged geography, Japan now
faces problems including population decline, a rapidly
falling birthrate, aging of society, and limited naturalresources. In order for Japan to build and maintain
good quality public infrastructure under suchconditions and to ensure safety and convenience forthe next generation, it is important to conduct researchfrom two perspectives: research on national land
management considering broad issues, including
disasters, for the entire nation, which is the foundationof people’s lives, and research on construction
management and all aspects of production systems
in order to maintain the infrastructure stock properly
and ensure high-quality public works projects from thenarrow perspective of efficiently implementing
specific methods. This article discusses these twoperspectives based on surveys being undertaken by theResearch Center for Land and Construction
Management.

2. Perspective from national land management
Japan is facing unprecedented changes, withfrequent massive natural disasters in addition to social
weakness caused by the declining population, aging ofsociety, economic stagnation, and other factors. Inview of the devastating loss of life and property
caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake, we mustnow
revisevariousestablisheddisastercountermeasures in order to reduce damage andprovide multi-layered protection. Accordingly, we are
now revising national land plans in preparation for theTokai, Tonankai, and Nankai Earthquakes which are
likely to occur in the future. In a public opinion survey
in October 2011 concerning people’s lives, 45% of
respondents reported that since the earthquake disaster,
they had become strongly conscious of “preparing fordisasters,” revealing strong public awareness of
disaster protection1). Regarding administrative systems,
it is necessary to build social systems that function
well not only during normal times, but also whendisaster strikes. In addition, finding ways to maintainregional societies and local bonds in order to manage
the national land is a challenge which cannot beignored. Its increasing importance was confirmed by
the same public opinion survey, in which 40% of
respondents replied: “I value bonds with my familyand relatives” and “I value bonds with my region”.
Therefore, studies are needed on creating national land
which integrates safety, the environment, and vigor
based on natural and regional environmental
conditions and present policies in individual regions. Itis important to prevent weakening of this awareness ofdisaster prevention. Therefore, perhaps disasterprevention awareness needs to be internalized in socialsystems, for example, by regularly diagnosing thedisaster prevention capabilities of social systems. This
study will require a broad range of data that accuratelyrepresents a region’s disaster prevention capability.
3. Perspective from building construction
management
To create national land which integrates safety, theenvironment, and vigor, it will be necessary toefficiently provide good quality public infrastructurethat conforms to regional characteristics. Anotherurgent challenge is to prepare for the maintenance andrenewal of existing public infrastructure stock as it
deteriorates. In construction management, it will benecessary to optimize and prioritize public
procurement systems to efficiently build good quality
infrastructure and to maintain the existing stock.
As public procurement systems for prioritized,
efficient provision of good quality public
infrastructure under the Law for Ensuring the Qualityof Public Works (2005), a variety of initiatives, suchas the comprehensive bidding evaluation method,
integrated design and execution procurement method,and construction management (CM) method, wereintroduced to improve the quality of public works. But
to create a bidding and contract system which
encourages participating bidders to improve theirtechnological capabilities by analyzing problems inprojects managed by the Ministry of Land,
Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, and revisions
deemed necessary as a result2), these systems must be
steadily upgraded.
The growth strategy of the Ministry of Land,
Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism enacted in May
2010 aims to expand Japan’s superior construction andtransport industries, and its infrastructure relatedindustries into overseas markets, and to build a solidpresence in the world market. It is therefore necessary
to incorporate and promote international ordering and●Messages from Departments and Centers of NILIM
contracting methods in public works projects in Japan.
It is also necessary to study the good points ofordering and contracting rules which have been
gradually upgraded around the world, including public
infrastructure provision methods using public–private
sector links such as PFI/PPP, etc., to make Japan’sbuilding production systems even better. It is
important to respond to changes in quality assurance
methods at the execution stage resulting fromtechnological reforms, and to improve execution
management technologies by, for example, full-scale
introduction of computer control, monitoring andsurveying of public works, revision of standards andtechniques to appropriately and efficiently evaluate
results, and reliably obtaining high quality products inindividual works. Procedures to appropriately reflect
the achievements of companies in contract selection
processes must also be developed.
4. Perspectives from both sides
To prevent harm to the public economy by fatal
damage and reduce life cycle costs by prolonging theservice lives of public infrastructure while sustaining
harmony with the natural environment amid severe
natural conditions such as earthquakes, tsunami, storm
surges, volcanic disasters, floods, sediment disasters,
and heavy snowfall in Japan, it is essential to carry out
systematic maintenance based on inspections anddeterioration predictions based on the characteristics
of individual facilities. We must not only provide
good quality stock for construction management, butalso maintain that high quality. The comprehensive
development project, “Development of Inspection andMonitoring Technologies for Preventive Maintenanceof Public Infrastructure”, which was conducted forthree years beginning in 2010 by the Ministry of Land,
Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, is being
implemented jointly with relevant research divisions3).
A similar concept of stock management is importantfor national land management. In the future, it will
become increasingly necessary to consider themanagement of public infrastructure by appropriately
responding to changing circumstances while
combining the natural and social environments ofindividual regions, based on management of public
infrastructure throughout the country.
5. Conclusions
This article introduced the aims of research from avariety of angles regarding national land management
and construction management. These challenges areclosely related, and it is necessary to conduct
comprehensive research while ensuring that onesolution does not create new problems. We will bear
this in mind when conducting further research.
References
1) Cabinet Office Secretariat’s Public Relations
Office: Public Opinion Survey of the People’s Life,

October 2011.
(http://www8.cao.go.jp/survey/h23/h23-life/index.
html）2) H. Kishida: Direction of efforts to improvebuilding production systems for public works
projects, Proceedings of the 2011 Conference ofthe National Institute for Land and InfrastructureManagement, Technical Note of NILIM No. 665,
pp. 5-26.
(http://www.nilim.go.jp/lab/bcg/siryou/tnn/tnn065
5pdf/ks065507.pdf)
3)
http://www.nilim.go.jp/lab/pbg/theme/theme2/soupro/soupro1.htm