Is public works white elephant? Internship report
Keisuke Satoh
6/15/2015
A white elephant is defined as a possession which its owner cannot dispose of and whose cost, particularly that of maintenance, is out of proportion to its usefulness. Ian Rowley, correspondent based in BusinessWeek's Tokyo bureau said that for first-time visitors to Japan, it soon becomes apparent this is a country with a rare talent for big infrastructure projects. Its roads, although congested in urban areas, are nearly always billiard-table smooth. Japan's vast rail network, including the bullet trains that criss-cross the country at speeds of up to 200 miles per hour, is a source of national pride, racking up 22 billion passenger-journeys …show more content…
That compares unfavorably with all other major developed economies, such as the U.S. (62%) and Britain …show more content…
It has 680,000 bridges, almost 10,000 tunnels, 250 bullet trains and 98 airports. Government critics have long derided many as white elephants - unnecessary, costly and environmentally harmful. Moreover, he says that it is not even clear who would use all of the new infrastructure, or even who would build it. Thanks to Japan's low birthrate, the population is declining by more than quarter of a million a year, government statistics show, with its working-age population shrinking at double that pace. According to Health Ministry projections the number of Japanese is expected to fall by nearly a third, to below 90 million, by 2060. That means fewer cars on Japan's roads. Japanese automotive research company Fourin Inc. estimates car sales in Japan will fall from nearly 5.4 million last year to 4.5 million in 2020, and to about 3 million a year by 2040. Japan's construction workforce is also shrinking: today it is a third smaller than in 1997 and building firms are already having trouble finding workers to rebuild areas from the 2011 disaster.
Much of the problem lies with the pork barrel politics that characterized postwar Japan. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party draws much of its strength from rural constituencies, which means public works projects have long led to huge spending in the countryside
Keisuke Satoh
6/15/2015
A white elephant is defined as a possession which its owner cannot dispose of and whose cost, particularly that of maintenance, is out of proportion to its usefulness. Ian Rowley, correspondent based in BusinessWeek's Tokyo bureau said that for first-time visitors to Japan, it soon becomes apparent this is a country with a rare talent for big infrastructure projects. Its roads, although congested in urban areas, are nearly always billiard-table smooth. Japan's vast rail network, including the bullet trains that criss-cross the country at speeds of up to 200 miles per hour, is a source of national pride, racking up 22 billion passenger-journeys …show more content…
That compares unfavorably with all other major developed economies, such as the U.S. (62%) and Britain …show more content…
It has 680,000 bridges, almost 10,000 tunnels, 250 bullet trains and 98 airports. Government critics have long derided many as white elephants - unnecessary, costly and environmentally harmful. Moreover, he says that it is not even clear who would use all of the new infrastructure, or even who would build it. Thanks to Japan's low birthrate, the population is declining by more than quarter of a million a year, government statistics show, with its working-age population shrinking at double that pace. According to Health Ministry projections the number of Japanese is expected to fall by nearly a third, to below 90 million, by 2060. That means fewer cars on Japan's roads. Japanese automotive research company Fourin Inc. estimates car sales in Japan will fall from nearly 5.4 million last year to 4.5 million in 2020, and to about 3 million a year by 2040. Japan's construction workforce is also shrinking: today it is a third smaller than in 1997 and building firms are already having trouble finding workers to rebuild areas from the 2011 disaster.
Much of the problem lies with the pork barrel politics that characterized postwar Japan. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party draws much of its strength from rural constituencies, which means public works projects have long led to huge spending in the countryside