Silviase/jgov_v1.4_full_ann huggingface dataset:
Figure 1-3-5 Metropolitan Expressways Aging Status

(Note) Cumulative axle load: A 10-ton equivalent of the cumulative volume of traffic since launch.

Source) Experts Panel on Revitalization of Metropolitan Expressways, MLIT

Number of elapsed years of service and number of incidents of damage per kilometer

(Note) A summarized compilation of the number of damages to elevated bridges detected from 2001 to 2013. Source) "Report by the Research Committee on the Direction for Major Upgrading of Metropolitan Expressway Structures" by Metropolitan Expressway Co., Ltd.

Desirably, aging infrastructures should be properly renovated and repaired to maintain their functionalities. Some, however, have been damaged to threaten safety to such extent, without appropriate renovations and repairs, that they can no longer be kept in service. These circumstances are considered more serious in municipalities. The number of bridges blocked and those with regulated traffic has increased in municipalities having more bridges to manage than the nation or other entities (Figure 1-3-6).
## 2 "America in Ruins" and Subsequent Approaches

Figure 1-3-7 compares Japan and the U.S. in terms of the number of bridges by the year of construction. The number of bridges built is found to soar in Japan after the period of rapid economic growth, whereas the development of infrastructures has been driven on an extensive scale in the U.S. since the New Deal policy enforced in the 1920s. Thus, the U.S., which embarked on the development of infrastructures ahead of Japan, had the problems of aging infrastructures manifest earlier than in Japan.

In the U.S. in the 1980s, the worsening issues of aging infrastructures had impacted various aspects of the national economy and living. According to records dating back to those days, kids commuting to school on a school bus were forced to take a detour because of weight limitations on the bridges the bus passed or get off before the bridges and walk by Note $ ^{15} $ . As shown in Figure 1-3-9, while Manhattan Island is connected to surrounding areas by bridges, damage accidents had occurred on multiple bridges in the 1980s, sparking the execution of major renovations everywhere in the island. Under the circumstances, a book authored by Pat Choate and Susan Walter was published in 1981 as “America in Ruins” to warn of the status of decaying infrastructures. This book was translated into Japanese as well. The term “America in Ruins” has become a term

Source) "Japan in Ruins, and Managing Roads to Save Japan from Ruins" - Taking Lessons from America in Ruins - Vol. 3, "Road Bureau, MLIT"

Sources) National Institute for Land and Infrastructure Management Document No. 645 "Collection of Basic Data on Road Structures in Fiscal 2009 and Fiscal 2010. Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation.

Source) "Japan in Ruins, and Managing Roads to Save Japan from Ruins" - Taking Lessons from America in Ruins - Vol. 3, "Road Bureau, MLIT"

Note 15 ““Japan in Ruins, and Managing Roads to Save Japan from Ruins” - Taking Lessons from America in Ruins - Vol. 3,” Road Bureau, MLIT
symbolic of the U.S. in the 1980s as it was confronted with the challenges of aging infrastructures.

This situation incurred in the U.S. might be attributable in part to continuing highway budget cuts from the late 1960s to the 1970s to inhibit sufficient maintenance, management and upgrade (Figure 1-3-10).

Figure 1-3-10 Amounts of Investment in Infrastructures by the Federal, State and Local Governments (10 million dollars, real (2009 base))

Source) Developed by the MLIT from “‘A CBO Study - Public Spending on Transportation and Water Infrastructure” Detailed Data on Infrastructure Spending, by Level of Government and Type of Infrastructure, 1956 to 2009” by the Congressional Budget Office (2010).

As decaying infrastructures loomed into an issue of broad public concern, the U.S. raised the gas tax by 5 cent in 1983 to nearly double from its 1959 level, at which it had been kept in defiance of lingering inflation, in its effort to replenish its financial resources $ ^{Note 16} $ . Figure 1-3-11 shows changes in the federal spending of highway expenditures broken down into capital spending and operation, maintenance and management. The chart suggests that the maintenance and management expenditures have been funded by not simply cutting new investment but by maintaining directing investment into the infrastructures as a whole to combine the proper maintenance of legacy infrastructures with the development of strategic infrastructures. The number of defective bridges in the

Figure 1-3-11

Changes in Highway Spending by the Federal, State and Local Governments (million dollars, real (2009 base))

U.S. has been consistently declining through the implementation of continuing efforts to maintain, manage and upgrade them (Figure 1-3-12).

It should also be noted that such series of political responses to combat decaying infrastructures has been driven by formulating long-term, strategic schemes to define the nation’s traffic policy. While President Reagan advocated the “New Federalism” initiative in his pursuit of the formation of a “small government” by delegating federal authorities to state government and cutting federal spending, the Surface Transportation Assistance Act (STAA) enforced in 1983 amid the realities of “America in Ruins” to retain a greater proportion of federal government and secure revenues $ ^{Note\ 17} $ .

The Obama Administration currently in office has also expressed its keen consciousness of the need to maintain high-
quality infrastructures to spur the accumulation of businesses and the creation of employment in a global economic climate. In his 2013 State of the Union Address, President Obama proposed, among else, the appropriation of 50 billion dollars to investment in the development of infrastructures, including a spending 40 billion dollars by the “Fix-It-First” program to maintain infrastructures needing urgent innovations and fixed, the inauguration of an “Infrastructure Bank” and the like to extend loans and provide debt guarantees to the infrastructural projects pursued on a public-private collaboration basis and the simplification of paperwork procedures relevant to the authorization of infrastructural projects. As a result of confusions, such as government closures, arising from twists between the Upper and

Lower Houses and conflicts over the nation’s financial policy between the Republican and Democratic Parties, many of the political programs, including Fix-It-First, were not put into action, but the betterment of the quality of infrastructures has remained a key political challenge for the Obama Administration as President Obama called upon Congress in his 2014 State of the Union Address to pass traffic bills to reinforce the facilities of the infrastructures $ ^{Note\ 18} $ .

As Japan is also about to enter a sheer period of aging infrastructures, it should take lessons from the experience of the U.S. that endeavored to combat its seriously ailing infrastructures dubbed as “America in Ruins” in the 1980s and put forth long-term, strategic approaches to keep up the facilities of the infrastructures to avert “Japan in Ruins.”

## 3 Trends in the Maintenance and Management of Social Infrastructures

A summary insight into the status of social infrastructure maintenance and management works is given below, along with discussions of their characteristics and challenges from standpoints of local governments and builders.
## (1) Diversity and characteristics of maintenance and management services

The term “maintenance and management” may sound simple but the actual work involved varies greatly its embodiment depending on the kind of infrastructure involved, the kind of know-how required and how often and to what extent and with what emphasis it is carried out.

Figure 1-3-13 gives a summarized description of the services relevant to the maintenance and management of roads outsourced in a certain city during fiscal 2013, to help develop a general understanding of what services are required to maintain and manage familiar social infrastructures. Obviously, road maintenance and management services are numerous and diverse, ranging from

checking up, fixing and repairing pavements and roadside facilities, such as street lights and curb mirrors, through weeding, disinfecting and trimming plantations, cleaning public toilets, to managing elevators if installed in pedestrian bridges. In addition to routine maintenance and management activities, such as patrolling and cleanups, certain tasks occur periodically, if not frequently, including focused inspections and diagnostics on structural strengths and quake resistance, and major renovations, such as antiseismic reinforcements.

Further, services relevant to maintenance and management activities are often implemented on the infrastructures that are in service. Services for roads carrying heavy traffic, for example, need to be carried out during hours in which traffic is low, such as in the night, to minimize user inconveniences. In addition, infrastructures are sometimes surrounded by a complexity of other structures, such as railways and elevated bridges, which could restrict the work hours and environment. Some infrastructures, such as dams and harbor facilities, have a greater proportion of their geometries submerged in water. Some, such as large bridges, have their

maintenance and management points located at higher elevations. Maintenance and management services for these infrastructures are bound to take place in a harsh work environment.

## (2) Trends in maintenance and management spending

It is considered that maintenance and management spending is affected by the degree of accumulation of social infrastructures (Figure 1-3-15).

Estimates of the sum total of the expenditures needed to keep existing social infrastructures maintained, managed and upgraded were worked out in December 2013 by the Infrastructure Development Council and the Transport Policy Council, MLIT on the basis of their maintenance, management and upgrade results collected by probing into the number of facilities in 10 sectors of social capital (roads, flood control, sewage systems, ports and harbors, public rental housing,
parks, seacoasts, airports, navigation aids, governmental facilities) falling under jurisdiction of the MLIT, local governments, Local Road Public Corporations and the Japan Water Agency, an incorporated administrative agency. On the assumption of the current state of technology and framework, the maintenance and management spending is estimated to rise from 3.6 trillion yen in fiscal 2013 to reach approximately 4.3 to 5.1 trillion yen 10 years later and approximately 4.6 to 5.5 trillion yen 20 years later $ ^{19} $ . Uncertainties prevail over the perspectives of land usage, structural changes in urban and rural areas, possible cuts in the maintenance, management and upgrade spending resulting from technical developments, benefits of infrastructures and so on, but what is important is to get prepared for taking not an insignificant burden of the maintenance, management and upgrade spending and for putting relevant measures into action to keep economic

Changes in the Amount of Social Overhead Capital

competitiveness from being degraded and safety and security from being threatened by ailing infrastructures over a long period of time to come.

## (3) Maintenance and management from a local government's perspectives

Local governments play a major role in developing appropriate responses to the challenges of social infrastructures maintenance and management.

If the social infrastructures managed by the central and local governments are broken down by facility, 90% or more of bridges 2 m long or more and 65% of the river management facilities are administered by prefectures, government ordinance-designated cities and municipalities. Generally, local governments take the responsibility for maintaining, managing and upgrading social infrastructures, though to a varying extent depending on the kind of infrastructure involved, highlighting the need for the local governments to reinforce their framework and to develop and maintain technicians (Figure 1-3-16).

Figure 1-3-16

Percentage Ratios of Facilities by Management Body

Expressway company	Airport company	Nation	Prefecture	Municipalities (including government ordinance-designated cities)	Port management body
Roads (bridges at least 2 m long)	2%	-	4%	19%	75%	-
Roads (tunnels)	15%	-	13%	46%	26%	-
Roads (pavements)	3%	-	7%	21%	69%	-
Rivers	-	-	35%	65%	-
Sand erosion control (sand-control dams, floor fixing)	-	-	-	100%	-	-
Sewage systems (pipes and conduits)	-	-	-	2%	98%	-
Sewage systems (treatment plants)	-	-	-	9%	91%	-
Ports and harbors	-	-	9%	-	-	91%
Public rental housing	-	-	-	43%	57%	-
Parks	-	-	0.02%	1%	99%	-
Seacoasts	-	-	-	100%	-
Airports	-	3%	29%	68%	-
Navigation aids	-	-	100%	-	-	-
Governmental facilities	-	-	100%	-	-	-

Note 19 Refer to “Recommendations on the Future Concepts of Social Infrastructures Maintenance, Management and Upgrade, Chapter 1 (December 2013)” by the Infrastructure Development Council and the Transport Policy Council, MLIT and Annex “Estimating the Amount of Future Maintenance, Management and Upgrade Spending.”
Figure 1-3-20 What Are Disquieting about Progressive Aging?

Figure 1-3-21

Status of Understanding of Aging by Local Governments (Have Technical Staff or Not)

Conducting decay forecasts.

Have an understanding of the status of aging by inspections.

Have an understanding of the status of aging by patrolling.

Do not have an understanding of aging.

(Note) Averages of the percentage ratios of the number of local governments under survey working to take their own mixes of measures in each of the five sectors of infrastructures (roads, rivers, sewage systems, public rental housing, parks) in which these local governments are dominant.

Source) Developed by the MLIT from findings of a questionnaire survey conducted on local governments (November 2013).

Source) Developed by the MLIT from “Recommendations on the Future Concepts of Social Infrastructures Maintenance, Management and Upgrade (December 2013)” by the Infrastructure Development Council and the Transport Policy Council, MLIT.

Figure 1-3-22

Reasons for Not Understanding the Costs of Maintenance, Management and Upgrade

Source) Developed by the MLIT from “Recommendations on the Future Concepts of Social Infrastructures Maintenance, Management and Upgrade (December 2013)” by the Infrastructure Development Council and the Transport Policy Council, MLIT.
Services”)Note 20. Figure 1-3-27 summarizes the results of a hearing about what kind of difficulty respondents had experienced in executing maintenance and management services. According to these results, many had experienced difficulties securing manpower to carry out works centering on daily patrolling and minor repairs.

Figure 1-3-27

Difficulties Experienced by Constructors and the Like in Executing Maintenance and Management Services

Many respondents mention shorts on basic information, such as drawings and management logs, in their execution of those services that require a detailed knowledge of the conditions of the target structures, such as focused inspections and resultant designs and subsequent major renovations, suggesting that the development of an infrastructure information base is urged. A large share of respondents also pointed out problems in all categories of services mainly involving fieldwork, evidencing the difficulty of working on the infrastructures that are in service.

## (5) Status of labor force in the construction industry

As many constructors talk of the difficulties gaining human resources, the availability of appropriate labor force to the construction industry should be of vital importance to provide a positive solution to the issues of infrastructure maintenance and management that are anticipated to set into full motion from now on. Obviously, from Figure 1-3-28, the number of authorized constructors and the number of employees in the construction industry have been declining rapidly since 1997 in pace with sagging construction investment, with greater decreases in the number of employees when compared with the rest of the industries (Figure 1-3-29).

As can be seen from changes in the number of employees in the construction industry by age group shown in Figure
1-3-30, peaks in the number of employees in the construction industry are found in the age groups of the late 20s and the early 50s in 2000, and these peaks have since shifted to right as they got smaller. According to the chart, the number of employees in the construction industry is found to decline as aging workers retire, urging the construction industry to encourage retirees to get back to their previous jobs and secure a new population of younger workers.

Figure 1-3-28

Changes in Construction Investment, Number of Authorized Constructors and Number of Employees

(Notes) 1 The amounts of investments are actual up to fiscal 2010, estimates for fiscal 2011 and 2013 and forecasts for fiscal 2013. 2 The number of authorized constructors is the value effective at the end of each fiscal year (end of March of the following year)

3 The number of employees is a yearly average. The 2011 value was estimated from a projected population based on the results of the 2010 National Census after a retrospective correction to allow for complementarily estimated values derived from the three quake-stricken prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi, Fukushima.

Source) "Construction Investment Estimates" and "Licensed Contractor Count Survey" by the MLIT and "Labor Force Survey" by the MIC

Figure 1-3-29

Changes in the Number of Employees (in All Industries and the Construction Industry)

Figure 1-3-30

Changes in the Age Composition of Employees in the Construction Industry

As the number of employees in the construction industry continues to fall in the future, degrading the added value (value of production) that can be created by the construction industry, the implementation of relevant anti-aging measures could be affected. To keep social infrastructures properly maintained, updated and upgraded for long, continuing efforts would be necessary to develop and maintain human resources on a planned basis to take these tasks and to boost labor productivity in the construction industry.
looming into major concern, would you please tell us about the future approaches you feel particularly significant?

- That should be the development of human resources above anything. Civil engineering had been a very popular segment of industry in the postwar period, because it had a close bearing on the rehabilitation of the national land and on nation-building. But civil engineering is no longer as popular among students as it used to be. Further, modern students joining in civil-engineering faculties seem greatly interested in such issues as planning, community renovation and rehabilitation. As their interest focuses on planning and community renovation, they appear to take less interest in the lectures on maintenance as I deliver them.

Utilizing a qualification system, for example, might be one way to motivate students to learn more about the concepts of maintenance and gain know-how about them. Since modern students are highly oriented towards career development, appealing the advantages of acquiring a socially accredited and esteemed qualification to them should naturally lead to the growth of young engineers.

Figure 1-3-31 Variations in Useful Lives of Concrete and the Causes
## Column

Today, social infrastructures alone are not decaying at a serious tempo in Japan.

Postwar Japan has followed a continuing pace of urbanization, creating a large supply of condominiums to house the population flowing into urban areas since the onset of the 1970s. From now on, many of these condominiums are entering a period of major repairs and renovations as they have been in existence for long since their initial construction.

## Aging Condominiums

Figure 1-3-32 Number of Condominium Dwelling Units Stocked Nationwide

(Notes) 1 The number of newly supplied dwelling units is estimated on the basis of building starts statistics or the like. 2 The number of dwelling units stocked is the number of dwelling units at the end of each year estimated on the basis of the cumulative number of newly supplied dwelling units, etc.

4 Condominium resident populations were calculated on the basis of 2.46 residents per household on the average from the 2010 National Census.

Source) MLIT

Condominiums that have aged without appropriate maintenance

and management care could not only suffer losses of structural safety and worsening residential environments but might induce a host of problems, such as a worsening of the surrounding living environment or urban environment.

As distinct from office buildings or privately owned houses, which are commonly owned by single entities, condominiums are each inhabited by a population of owners varying in value and in economic status, each holding ownership of one or more apartments of the condominium. Because of this characteristic, owners of the apartments of a condominium sometimes find it difficult to form consensus on the implementation of major repairs or the like.

In addition, there are problems of shorts on human resources and money. As condominiums grow old, the residents get aged as well, so that an increasing number of management associations are short of volunteers to work as officials. According to a survey conducted by the MLIT, about one fourth of all the condominium management associations are anxious about possible shorts on their renovation reserve funds, while about 15% feel uneasy about condominium common service fees in arrears and the difficulty of running their management associations.

Figure 1-3-33 Number of Condominiums Over 30, 40 and 50 Years Old

Source) Document released at the 11th session of the Building Standards Systems Workgroup, Panel on Infrastructure Development, MLIT

Figure 1-3-34 Aging Condominium Residents

Source) Document (part) released at the 11th session of the Building Standards Systems Workgroup, Panel on Infrastructure Development, MLIT.