The Infrastructure System of Japan - Essay Example

A Critical Review of the Infrastructure System of Japan This paper will tackle the assessment of the infrastructure system of Japan along four areas: highway maintenance, railway maintenance, drainage maintenance, and utilities and service distribution. Evaluation was be based on a five point Likert-type scale: excellent, above average, average, below average and poor. A discussion of the measures utilised in the construction of the assessment scale is provided at the end of the paper. 1.0 Highway Maintenance Miyamoto, Kawamura and Nakamura (2002) indicated that the highway network of Japan is newer compared to those of other developed countries, and as such, finance for maintenance have not really been a grave concern in the country yet. Nevertheless, scientists and engineers continuously laboured to keep abreast of modern trends in highway administration and maintenance. As early as 1989, the maiden version of a digital road map database for land navigation has been completed. The database contains precise information on the road attributes all over Japan and may be used to strengthen highway management initiatives (Kamijo, Okumura and Kitamura, 1989, p. 319). It was, however, in 2003 when Japan introduced a road management mechanism in order to promote efficacy and transparency in road administration. The scheme is anchored on a system of measurements based on indices. Salient features of the road management system are performance plans, achievement reports and the Guidance for Road Administration Management (GRAM). A performance plan which delineates numerical targets, policies and projects are published yearly; while an achievement report which contains an assessment of the level of achievement of the numerical targets are also published at the end of each fiscal year. Meanwhile, to maximize the gains of the road administration management system as it is implemented in the countryside, the GRAM is prepared and disseminated. Figure 1 shows the typical flow of road administration management in Japan as practised by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (Road Bureau, 2008a). Figure 1: Flow of road administration management in Japan (Road Bureau, 2008b) Over the years, the Japanese government and the concerned institutions struggled to encourage systematic management founded on existing circumstances and forecasts. Preventive maintenance is commonly implemented to extend the functionality of infrastructure like bridge systems. This approach is known to mitigate costs related to repair and rebuilding. To be able to capitalise on the benefits of preventive maintenance, Japanese road administrators also practiced competent defect identification and intervention measures. A case in point is the chronic congestion at the entrance of the Wakayama University intersection to the Umehara intersection. Figures 2 and 3 are pictures of the locale before and after the implementation of countermeasures for chronic traffic congestion (MLIT, 2008b). It may be gleaned from Figure 2 that before the implementation of the countermeasure, the Southbound lane consists of only one lane (in red) while the North bound lane has two lanes (in blue). As a result of the countermeasure as captured in the photograph in Figure 3, South bound congestion was decreased from 1,050 meters to only 200 meters after the implementation. Conversely, there was an increase in North bound congestion from 200 meters to 500 meters after the implementation. Figure 2: A snapshot of the locale where the traffic flow defect was identified (MLIT, 2008a) Figure 3: A picture of the locale after the countermeasure was implemented (MLIT, 2008a) Another area of highway management involves inspection and monitoring. In this respect, Adachi (2005) reported that Japan uses advanced non-destructive inspection technology for seismically damaged structures, particularly those suffered from the Hyogo-ken Nanbu earthquake in the year 1995. The earthquake prone country is also implementing the use of advanced maintenance monitoring scheme for deteriorating structures using equipment developed by the Hanshin Corporation. On the other hand, Kanaji and Kagayama (2001) showed that design and maintenance of urban highways primarily constitute steel structures. In an assessment undertaken by Kanaji and Kagayana, damage to steel works in Japan involve bearings, cracking due to corrosion and fatigue, expansion joints and high tension bolts. In terms of bridge construction, accounts of Kitada (2006) confirmed that long and big steel bridges in Japan are practically completed. The bulk of recent tasks is focused on maintenance of old bridges and seismic retrofitting of existing bridges, considering that Japan lies in the “Ring of Fire”. Kitada (2006) stressed the importance of repair and maintenance of annuated bridges to lessen the usually uncomfortable effects the very old bridges in their perimeter. In terms of winter maintenance, Japan and countries in Scandinavia have actively welcomed new ideas and developed equipment during the last ten years in recognition of the relevance of winter friction measurements for road safety. Based on universal standards, Japan is engaged in more advance modelling techniques for winter maintenance than some European countries whose efforts were grounded on limited information . Thus, Japan is doing very well in this area of highway maintenance (Al-Qadi, Loulizi, Flintsch, Roosevelt, Decker, Wambold and Nixon, 2002). In terms of traffic safety from an international perspective, the rate of traffic accident death persons in Japan is more than one and a half times higher than that of the United Kingdom, 1.4 times higher than the United States and 1.1 times higher than Germany. However, the rate of traffic accident death persons in France is 1.15 times higher than Japan. Japan’s current rate may be considered to have gone far from a rate of as high as 5 in 1967 for those which occurred while walking or driving. This improvement may be attributed to development of traffic safety facilities on existing roads where close to 300 million yen was invested over a period of 7 years . Latest available data from the Road Bureau (2008a) suggests that road management system in Japan showed positive improvements and slightly encouraging figures. Time lost through traffic congestion was reduced by 3% in 2003; duration of road works posted a reduction of 7%; electronic toll collection (ETC) percentage increased by 5% in 2002 and 16% in 2003. Bridge maintenance completion is 86% in 2002 and 87% in 2003; while pavement maintenance completion is 91% in 2002 and 93% in 2003 . Environment-wise, 53% of the reductions target for NO2 emissions was achieved in 2003; while 61% of the night time noise reduction requirement limit was achieved in 2002 and 64% in 2003. In terms of road safety, an increase of 0.01 accident per million vehicles-kilometre was observed in 2003. Some seven per cent of utility poles were eliminated from urban arterials in 2002 and nine per cent in 2003. Finally, road user satisfaction was 2.6/5.0 points both in 2002 and 2003. Considering both government accounts and user satisfaction, highway maintenance in Japan may be described as above average. 2.0 Railway Maintenance Written in a Nihonggo publication, Nakagawa, Shimada, Takai, Kahawara and Yano (2003) described how the railway operations in Japan are harnessing information technology (IT) for the improvement of efficiency and increased safety and security. Generally, railway operations such as timetable preparation, direction control and tracking are carried out by IT. However , maintenance of railway lines were traditionally carried out manually to guarantee the safety and stability of all stakeholders. At the time of this study, the West Japan Railway Co.,Ltd., scored a breakthrough in railway maintenance when it ventured to apply IT to the maintenance and repair of railway lines as the subsystem of the operating management system of JR Kyoto and Kobe. Meanwhile, in terms of transport speed, Japan has also never stopped it research and development for rail transportation faster than its “shinkansen” or bullet train, which is already considered very fast at speed of more than 200 mph (320 kph) and one of the most efficient worldwide (Chino, 2008). Ono, Koga and Ohtsuki (2002) developed a maglev, train, which is more advanced than the famed “shinkansen” with a speed of more than 300 mph (500 kph). Ono, Koga and Ohtsuki (2002), who worked on the maglev train under the guidance of the Japanese Ministry of Transport, described the maglev train as one with a linear synchronous motor which carries a superconducting magnet on board and an armature coil in the ground. Beginning in 1997, the super speed train has already been tested on the Yamanashi line, to verify its performance and functionality. Figure 4 exhibits a tangible testimony of Japanese genius is in its management of railway system, criss-crossing train networks. Figure 4: An Iyo railway interurban crosses the Iyo city streetcar line (“Favorites”, 2005) The Iyo Railway, particularly the portion near the Matsuyama station as shown in Figure 4 is a very interesting area, specially when the Iyo interurban crosses the Iyo city streetcar line. From the short assessment, it may, therefore, be concluded that in terms of railway maintenance, Japan’s has an excellent infrastructure system. 3.0 Drainage Maintenance Bruen and Gebre (2001) indicated that the prime accountability for flood defence in Japan at the national level is held by the Central Disaster Prevention Council, in coordination with some government agencies and public institutions. Japan has a legal framework in place for disaster-reduction efforts. The Disaster Countermeasures Basic Act mandates government authorities involved in disaster reduction to come up with basic, operational and local plans. Japan maintains and improves it measurement and warning systems and flood fighting systems. Telecommunication and broadcasting systems are also disaster-proofed. As much as possible, road networks and ports are also maintained to be disaster-resistant . Japan also builds and maintains facilities to protect buildings from flood damage. Bruen and Gebre (2001) observed that the emphasis of Japan’s efforts are geared more towards loss prevention rather than making up for damage caused by floods. Therefore even if the Japanese populace do not usually avail of flood insurance, Japan’s approach to flood problems is considered successful by all measures. Japan’s technocrats do not, however, rest on their laurels. It was noted from a review of research journals and international conference proceedings that scientists have not relented in their attempts to continuously enhance flood forecasting as a preventive measure against flooding and other drainage related issues. In 2003, experts from the University of Tokyo contributed their know-how in special distributions of precipitation. Using precipitation data for the year 2001, the team of Dawen, Toshio, Hiroshi (2003) used a grid based distributed hydrological model to assess the outcome of the spatial distributions of precipitation in the Aimata catchment of the upper Tone River basin in Japan. The venture was made possible with the emergence of weather radar techniques which allowed for radar measurements with distributed models for use in the examination of the hydrological applications for prediction of flood events. In terms of its sewage effluent, Japan also displayed ingenuity in transforming waste or attempts in converting waste into beneficial uses. For example, Zaman, Dih, Sakamoto, Goto, Hayashi and Inubushi (2002) compared the effect of sewage sludge compost and chemical fertilizer on the chemical properties of soil and found promising results. Meanwhile, Arashi and Inaba (2000) tested and compared energy use in a district heating and cooling plant using sewage as heat source on one hand, and air, on another. Findings revealed positive outcomes with sewage as the heating source. In terms of municipal sewerage systems, Terunuma (2005) affirmed that daily operation and maintenance of its pumping stations, sewers and wastewater treatment facilities are sufficient to address the needs of the entire country. There are, however, more than 7,000 kilometers of sewer pipes in the large cities which have reached the end of its economic life. In addition, those which have not yet reached the end of their useful life have severely deteriorated or have sustained major damages through the years of use. As a result of these developments, yearly rehabilitation costs are increasing. As a general observation, Terunuma (2005) sees that the open cut method is not a valid option for the rehabilitation of deteriorated or damaged sewer pipes because of heavy traffic and other underground laid objects. Although Japan’s advance technology have gone far in terms of research in pipe rehabilitation methods, the variability in material requirements for the different methods. Current concerns in this respect are in the drawing up of manuals for each type of sewer pipe and pipe liner rehabilitation methods. In the area of drainage maintenance, it may be generalised that the infrastructure system of Japan is above average. 4.0 Utilities and Service Distribution Working on a comparison of the technical efficiency of American and Japanese electric utilities using stochastic frontier analysis, Hattori (2002) revealed that on the average, Japan’s electrical utilities are more efficient. These results were obtained using translog input distance functions to signify electricity distribution technology in an empirical study. The same investigation also disclosed that Japanese utilities are comparable with those of US utilities. De Graff and Matsushita (2008) maintained that compared to other countries, availability of water in Japan on a per-capita basis is low. Meanwhile, variations in precipitation through the years is high. In this respect, an excellent infrastructure and water service distribution management system will really play a vital role in serving the needs of the Japanese populace. Sawada, Takeshita and Ogawa (2000) confirmed De Graff and Matsushita’s (2008) claim regarding the state of water resources in Japan. The team from Toyo Electrical Manufacturing Company reveal waterworks in practically all Japanese municipalities maintain several water purification and distribution plants to provide the piped water service requirements to the administrative region. These waterworks, according to Sawada, et. al. (2000) do not usually satisfy the demands using their independent supply system. Because of this problem, it has become imperative that a new system is developed by connecting the waterworks in an information network and applying water demand prediction and water supply plans to come up with an optimal daily operation. Initial results were found promising. In a related study, Mizutani and Urakami (2005) ascertained the optimal size of a water supply organization considering scale economics and inputting sample data from actual water supply enterprises. Three cost models were used in the estimation: a log-linear model, a translog model and a translog model with a hedonic function. Results revealed that the optimal number will be supplying a population of 766,000 people. The Sawada, et al. (2000) and Mizutani and Urakami (2005) studies confirm that water supply and distribution issues are to be expected in a country where water resources are scant. However, the two studies also suggest that Japanese research and development is continuously looking for ways and means to find solution the water supply problem. Meanwhile, along the forefronts of telecommunications, Japan was first to launch the packet switched wireless network (DoPa), the wireless internet, camera-phones, 3G and 3.5G, among all the countries in the world. Its telecommunications industry gears up to serve 30 million subscribers to the fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) service and some ten million subscribers to the ADSL service in 2010, the telecommunications landscape in Japan is ripe for the being the top country in the world in terms of telecommunications service. Even with a few setbacks in its water distribution, Japanese utilities and service distribution may still be considered above average. On the whole, the infrastructure system of Japan is assessed as above average, closer to being excellent. 5.0 The Criteria Used Evaluation was based on a five point Likert-type scale: excellent, above average, average, below average and poor. Basically, the criteria used for the evaluation was anchored on a qualitative assessment of the four areas as described in the Module Handbook. For example, for highway maintenance, the criteria considered the following points: (1) presence of road maintenance management system, (2) capability to identify defects in highway civil works and the corresponding intervention level required, (3) capability to assess remedial or maintenance works and the management of (4) efficient utilization of capital and revenue, if any, (5) local transportation planning, (6) capability for winter maintenance, and (7) safety plans. Table 1 shows a rough approximation of how the assessment was undertaken using an author-devised grid. Table 1: Assessment Estimation Grid 100% O 100 % < O < 85% 85 % < O < 70% 70 % < O < 40% < 40 % O 0% P Excellent - - - - 0% > P < 15% - Above Average Average Below Average Poor 15 % < P < 30% - - Average Below Average Poor 30 % < P < 60% - - - Below Average Poor > 60 % P - - - - Poor The first column ranges were for problematic areas (hence, P) while the top row ranges were outstanding areas (hence, O). The grid shown in Table 1 may be interpreted as follows: for highway maintenance which has 7 items, if all items are outstanding as supported by literature, the infrastructure for highway maintenance is considered excellent. If the problematic areas range from 0 to 15% and the outstanding areas range from 85 to 100%, highway maintenance is assessed as above average. However, if the problematic areas range from 0 to 15%, but the outstanding areas only range from 70 to 85%, then this area is adjudged as average. Also, if the problematic areas range from 0 to 15%, but the outstanding areas only range from 40 to 70%, then this infrastructure element is rated as below average. The rest of the grid is interpreted in similar manner. REFERENCES ADACHI, Y. 2005. Monitoring technologies for maintenance and management of urban highways in Japan. In: F. ANSARI, ed., Sensing Issues in Civil Structural Health Monitoring. Dordrecht: Springer, Netherlands, pp. 13-22. AL-QADI, I. L., LOULIZI, A., FLINTSCH, G. W., ROOSEVELT, D. S., DECKER, R., WAMBOLD, J. C. and NIXON, W. A. 2002. Feasibility of Using Friction Indicators to Improve Maintenance Operations and Mobility. Washington, D. C.: National Cooperative Highway Research Program, Transportation Research Board, National Academies. ARASHI, N. and INABA, A. 2000. 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Soil Science and Plant Nutrition, 48(2), pp. 195-201. Read More