Silviase/jgov_v1.4_full_ann huggingface dataset:
This type of awareness is also reflected in the attitude toward policies and measures regarding the maintenance, management, and upgrading of social infrastructures. If we look at the responses for what people consider important in the maintenance, management, and upgrading of social infrastructures, most people chose ‘Understanding the actual condition of social infrastructures,’ followed by those who chose ‘Consolidating and streamlining social infrastructures to fit the needs of the region, including withdrawal.’ There were also many people who chose the answer, ‘Extend service life through preventative measures’ (Figure 2-3-4). For this reason, the ideal direction for future maintenance, management, and upgrading of social infrastructures would be to first get people to properly grasp the condition of the social infrastructure, then decide on the consolidation and streamlining of the social infrastructure according to the developments in socioeconomic circumstances, while at the same time moving forward with efforts for extending service life through preventative maintenance.

## (1) Awareness regarding Consolidating and Streamlining Social Infrastructures

Looking at the results of the ‘Public Awareness Survey,’ the majority of people surveyed agreed with the thinking that if maintenance, management, and upgrading is going to cause a major strain in the future, that we should move toward reducing and abolishing some social infrastructures in a planned manner, starting in the present. The percentage of people who were of this thinking tended to rise with the increase in the age of the surveyed person (Figure 2-3-5). In the decision-making for consolidating and streamlining social infrastructures in relevant regions, this kind of trend shows the possibility of making consensus formation easier to progress, considering the fact the opinions of the elderly will become more important than ever before, due to the population decline and increasingly aging population. On the other hand, the younger the age of the person surveyed, the more the percentage increased of those who chose ‘I don’t know’ as the answer. This shows that, in regards to the younger generations, there is a need to promote efforts to facilitate a better understanding of the condition of social infrastructures.

We also need to keep in mind that many people believe that if they are benefiting from the convenience of current social infrastructures in place, that we need to sustain those infrastructures as much as possible in the future. Looking at

Figure 2-3-6, we can see that the more a person is concerned about the financial situation, the less they tend to answer that social infrastructures need to be kept. This shows that, though most people are of the opinion that they would like to pass on the convenience of current social infrastructures to future generations, there are many people who think that we cannot avoid having to forgo the upgrading of social infrastructures due to financial concerns.
Of course, even in cases where an infrastructure is necessarily reduced, we must move forward in a planned manner to make sure residents of the region at the very least benefit from necessary functions such as convenience in daily life, safety, and security; many people consider this a desirable direction in which to proceed (Figure 2-3-7). More specifically, not all social infrastructures are equally amenable to possible removal or reduction. Most notably, many people responded that it would be inappropriate to abolish or remove social infrastructures like disaster prevention and national land infrastructure that protect the lives of citizens (Figure 2-3-8). If we look at the results of a questionnaire survey conducted by Fuchu City, many people think that the ‘Hakomono (secondary)’ public facilities (ie. facilities for culture, education, and sports) are more suitable for implementing consolidation and streamlining, rather than civil engineering infrastructures (ie. roads, bridges, parks, sewage) (Figure 2-3-9). As evident, it will be very important—in terms of consolidating and streamlining social infrastructures—that we carefully consider how to implement changes in accordance with the purposes and category of the social infrastructures, so that, as much as possible, we avoid reducing the utility of the infrastructure for residents.

Figure 2-3-7 Things to Be Seriously Considered in Reassessing Public Facilities (As Consequence)

Due to declining population or downturn of the financial situation, if the local social infrastructures and other public facilities have to be reduced or reorganized, what would you consider to be the most important point? Please pick the best answer that approximates your thinking.
In Case the Current Level of Maintenance, Management, and Upgrading of Social Infrastructures Becomes Difficult, the Degree to Which One Feels the Implementation of Abolishing, Reducing and Merging Ought to be Carried Out (Infrastructure-specific)

## (2) Awareness regarding the Extending of Service Life

Amidst population decline, and as financial constraints becoming more obvious, in order to appropriately address the issue of aging social infrastructures we will need to work on reducing the total cost for maintenance, management, and upgrading by anticipating the future and initiating efforts in a well-planned manner. Especially as maintaining the existing infrastructures in a good condition is also important.

Up to this point, the mindset regarding the maintenance and management was centered around ‘corrective maintenance,’ a symptomatic way of repairing damage after it has progressed. We cannot expect to extend service life from this method of repair, as it would be enormously expensive if you include the cost of future upgrades. If we were to proactively implement the ‘preventative maintenance’ mindset instead, where repair work is done while the damage is still small, extending service life is made possible, and as a result, total future maintenance and management costs can be reduced.

Due to the Sasago Tunnel accident and the subsequent development of aging countermeasures, the awareness that regular maintenance, management, and upgrades are necessary for social infrastructures is starting to spread (Figure 2-3-10). In regards to maintenance, management, and upgrading, the overwhelming majority are of the opinion that more countermeasures should be implemented to extend service life, rather than lowering service standards or collecting fees (Figure 2-2-24). Against the backdrop of these concerns, there is a growing percentage of people who cite extending of service life as the preferred policy option for maintenance, management, and upgrading (Figure 2-3-11).
Once it is probably serviced, infrastructures can be used more or less permanently without further maintenance

Even after the infrastructures are properly serviced, regular maintenance and upgrading are required to preserve their function.

Rather than their initial installation, the cost for maintenance, management and upgrading of the social infrastructures is greater

Figure 2-3-10

Source) MLIT "Public Awareness Survey"

Some preliminary calculations have been done some examples of what the effect would be for switching from corrective maintenance to preventative maintenance.

For example, we compared the corrective maintenance and preventative maintenance illustrations of the cumulative repair costs for a continuous five-span bridge of 150m length $ ^{Note\ 64} $ . If the bridge is used for the length of the service life without doing any repairs then replaced, it would cost about JPY3.1 billion, while frequent replacement of pavement coating and getting cracks filled is estimated to cost about JPY800 million (Figure 2-3-12).

The impact of extending the service life of all social infrastructures is difficult to accurately grasp without an overall consideration of each facility’s structural properties and surrounding environments, as well things like its status of utilization and technological progress. However, it is possible to use the data from the Cabinet Office’s ‘Social Capital of Japan 2012’ to calculate the effects of extending service life at a macro level. The graph on Figure 2-3-13 shows retirement calculations for infrastructures of 15 sectors (roads, ports, aviation, public rental housing, sewage, waste disposal, water supply, city parks,

Source) MLIT "Study Group for the Maintenance and Management of the National Roads (National Management)"

educational facilities, flood control, forest conservation, coast, agriculture, forestry and fisheries, national forests, industrial water). The asset retirement calculation method that was used in ‘Social Capital of Japan 2012’ was used for calculating the rate of retirement for newly built infrastructures for each year, and for calculating the current average numbers of service life years of each sector’s infrastructures if they were to retire. When we calculated in the amount of loss in stock, which occurs if the average number of service life years was uniformly increased by 10% through prolongation
regarding public facilities. Eight prefectures and 128 municipalities have prepared and published white papers regarding public facilities (as of February 2014). Having an accurate perception of the current condition of public facilities, and having that information understood by local residents, is an indispensable part of working on reassessing the public facilities. Results from the ‘Public Awareness Survey’ also show that, when asked regarding working on reassessing public facilities, the answer “I would like a good explanation of the value and necessity for reduction and restructuring,” was chosen the most, followed by, “I would like objective data showing the effects and impact of reduction and restructuring” (Figure 2-3-16).

However, this is difficult to putt it into practice for actual implementation of specific initiatives. According to the questionnaire survey conducted by Japan PFI/PPP Association, out of all the local governments that prepared white papers regarding their public facilities, only 15.5% have actually been able to develop a plan for the proper placement of public facilities and conduct operational activities accordingly. Even in conjunction with other local governments that are still in the process of developing a plan, the percentage is still less than 50% (Figure 2-3-17). Figure 2-3-7 shows that when reassessing the public facilities, 29.6% of people surveyed would stress the importance of 'Maximizing the total financial savings,' while a bigger percentage would stress 'Minimum levels of necessary administrative services being maintained' (46.9%), and there are also many who would stress 'Consideration being given to equality within the region.' For this reason, in order to put the reassessment of public facilities into action, we will need to give consideration to the standards of the service allowed and inter-regional balance, while gaining the consensus of the residents.

Therefore, we will look at the examples of local governments that have prepared and published their white

(Note) This survey was conducted on local governments nationwide (664 member public entities, 1,018 non-member public entities) in January 2014 by NPO Japan PFI/PPP Association.

Source) Developed by MLIT from NPO Japan PFI/PPP Assowciation "3^{rd} Challenges Related to Public Facilities Upgrading Survey"
year, by investing heavily in the first five years, then continuing maintenance and management by the preventative maintenance method, the total cost would be reduced by JPY1.1 billion, compared to the previous maintenance and management method of corrective maintenance. By doing this type of budget simulation, they were able to gain understanding and to secure the budget for bridge asset management, despite the difficult financial situation (Figure 2-3-24).

Figure 2-3-24 Results of Budget Simulation using BMS

Source) Developed by MLIT from Aomori Prefecture website

In the ‘Aomori Bridge Service Life Extension Improvement Plan’ of 2008, the preventative maintenance method maintenance and management cost from 2008 to the next 50 years was estimated as JPY74.5 billion. When the plan was reviewed in May 2012, the preventative maintenance method maintenance and management cost from 2012 to the next 50 years was estimated as JPY66.9 billion, with the expected effect of the decrease in maintenance and management cost from using BMS.

In fact, aside from the cost reduction from using BMS, Aomori’s bridge asset management system has 1. Developed various manuals for things like maintenance and management inspections, repairs, and reinforcement and 2. Developed human resources by training administrative officers and construction-related operators with their three-pillared total management system: ‘Things (IT system),’ ‘Mechanisms (Manual)’ and ‘People (Human Resource Development).’

## (3) Prioritization in Maintenance, Management, and Upgrading

It is important to consider the reduction of lifecycle cost by moving forward with preventative maintenance measures, but despite such efforts, there may be cases where, due to the difficult financial situation, we need to sift through the various social infrastructures to decide which ones need it the most. In such instances, to decide which social infrastructures need to be prioritized, we may need to look at the said social infrastructures and consider their usage situation and necessity to make decisions in view of the circumstances.

In Gifu, to be able to continue providing a road that is safe and secure for the road users, they have incorporated the ‘preventative maintenance’ principle in repairing damaged areas while they are still small, and implementing appropriate maintenance and management of facilities.

However, many such road facilities are those that were built after the high-growth period, and as these facilities

start to age in the near future, there is a concern that there will be a sharp increase in the number of aging facilities. Furthermore, there is also the issue of a decreasing road budget, and it has been predicted that it may become difficult to
The UAV system being used for consideration is the one developed by the Canadian company, Aeryon Labs Inc, and can be operated by merely entering the flight route, altitude, and photographing points into a specialized operator tablet. Once the machine takes off, it will fly itself to the destination, and take video and still images required automatically.

In addition, since it is able to save flight routes once it has been inputted, it can fly the same route it had flown previously, even if a different operator is steering. For inspection operations, being able to secure reproducibility that is not affected by a dependency is a major advantage. Furthermore, the fact that no specialized skills are required for conducting flights as the operations are simple, is also a feature of the UAV system (Figure 2-3-30).

In FY2013, in Shibukawa City, Gunma, they are considering the use of an existing cameras, with the aim to check things like the exploration range and access distance to the bottom surface of plate decks and the underside of beams on the Kanetsu Expressway and Tonegawa River. They plan to continue with their deliberations with the goal to start earlier than expected on actual operations.

At the moment, their main concern is utilization for the inspection of bridges, but as they are hoping in the future to be able to use the cameras for other things like during heavy traffic times and for disaster investigations, they are planning to take the trials further.

In another sector, in recent years, another technology that is being developed and used as an advanced inspection technology for infrastructure, is the non-destructive inspection technology. Previously, in order to find out the deterioration condition of the internal structure, we had to damage parts of the structure every time we had to do an inspection. For example, we had to use a drill to collect samples of concrete structures, or to investigate for fractures in reinforcement bars that were underneath the concrete surface, we would need to chip parts away $ ^{Note\ 68} $ to expose the reinforcement bar for inspection. In addition, there were difficulties in actual inspection operations, like having to restrict traffic for inspections, or having places that were difficult for people to reach for inspections. Non-destructive inspection technology refers to the use of infrared, lasers, or electromagnetic waves to do inspections and diagnostics of a structure’s surface or internal condition. By using this kind of technology, we can expect to improve the efficiency and quality of inspections and diagnostics.

Source) East Nippon Expressway Company

Source) East Nippon Expressway Company

Source) East Nippon Expressway Company
Source) MLIT

Source) MLIT Gifu National Highway Office

As a verification example of the non-destructive inspection, in June 2013, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Gifu National Highway Office, in cooperation with the Gifu University social capital asset management technology research center, conducted a non-destructive inspection by examining the damaged sections of a bridge. The vehicle loaded with research equipment travelled at about 50km per hour on the national highway No.258, the ‘Hanedani Bridge’ to collect deck damage data. Not only can this inspection be done without causing any restrictions to traffic, because it can pick up on small amounts of damage early on, we are able to discover damaged sections before it becomes a serious issue. Also, because it clarifies what sections need repair before the start of construction, it allows for the construction to go smoothly, shortening the traffic restriction time that results from construction work.

As you can see, with its potential to improve both the quality and efficiency of inspections, the use of non-destructive inspection technology is expected to become more widespread in the near future.

## (Monitoring Technology)

Monitoring technology—which makes it possible to have a constant observational capability for detecting any abnormality or displacement in an infrastructure before it is noticed by an engineer during inspections—is also being developed and becoming widespread.

On the Tokyo Gate Bridge, which opened for operation in the Tokyo Bay in February 2012, a ‘Bridge Monitoring System’ was brought in with the goal to save labor on maintenance and management, reduce lifecycle cost, and analyze deterioration mechanisms. The Tokyo Gate Bridge has many sensors that detect things like the expansion and contraction displacement of the bridge swinging left and right, any strain to the center, and displacement of the seismic

Source) "METI Journal, June and July Edition", 2013, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry

isolation system. The data measured by the sensors is sent through the system to appear on a computer screen in the monitoring room, in pretty much real time. And any time there is an abnormality, it is reported by sounding an alarm.

The bridge monitoring system not only gives real time information regarding the condition of the structure, it can be used to analyze deterioration mechanisms as it accumulates data, including all data since the bridge opened for operations. For example, fatigue degradation from heavy cargo is a serious issue for bridges, but on the Tokyo Gate Bridge, because of the sensors installed in the floor framing, we can measure and analyze vehicle weight. With this mechanism, we can
detect deterioration early on, and undertake preventative maintenance. We also hope to gain clarification on the mechanism of deterioration for the overall lifecycle of the bridge through future data accumulation.

As evident from above, by using new technology that seems to progress daily in the infrastructure sector, we can work towards the efficiency and advancement of maintenance and management.

## (2) Securing and Developing Leaders for Maintenance, Management, and Upgrading

(Securing and Developing Leaders in the Local Governments)

According to the survey MLIT conducted of local governments, regarding efforts for setting up a system for training and developing human resources for maintenance, management, and upgrading, a relatively large ratio of about a fourth of those surveyed responded that, “We have an organization-wide training system of knowledge acquisition regarding maintenance, management, and upgrading from the state and other institutions,” while the majority responded, “We do not have any specific initiatives” (Figure 2-3-36). The ratio of local governments that responded, “We do not have any specific initiatives” were higher in the other municipalities category, which may be due to the fact that the smaller the scale of the local government, the fewer engineer staff they have to be in charge of maintenance, management, and upgrading, making it difficult to develop human resources. For example, if we look at the state of human resource development efforts by the number of engineer staff in the roads sector, for both responses choices “Use training system” and “Gain technical knowledge through everyday operations” the fewer the (or lack of) staff members, the lower the implementation rates (Figure 2-3-37).

Figure 2-3-36 Human Resource Training/Development System by Local Governments