Abstract
Japan' s infrastructure sector has long been mired, owing to economic
stagnation, excessive red tape and
the country' s high level of
development, all of which conspire to work against the emergence of
impetus
for construction work. A very modest recovery in 2006 and 2007
– entailing annual growth in
construction-sector industry value of
less than 1% year-on-year (y-o-y) in real terms – was followed by
pronounced negative growth in 2008, which we estimate at -3.8% y-o-y. The
prognosis for 2009 is little
better, given that the intensification of the
global economic downturn will weigh on Japan' s exports. This
will further
constrain industrial and commercial construction, economic growth and real
incomes and, in
turn, residential construction. Our forecast for 2009 is
for a further contraction in the real output of the
construction sector,
at a rate of just over 2% for the year as a whole. We anticipate growth to
regain some
momentum as the global economy recovers, but as the outlook
weakens the risks are strongly to the
downside.
The opening of a new
1,383-megawatt (MW) nuclear reactor in Japan' s Aomori Prefecture has been
delayed from March 2012 to November 2014, according to reports in November
2008. Construction work
at the proposed plant got underway under the
auspices of Electric Power Development Company in
May 2008, but this was
nearly two years behind the original schedule.
Chubu Electric Power was
considering decommissioning two nuclear reactors, while building a new
reactor. The two reactors reportedly earmarked for decommissioning are the No.
1 and No. 2 light-water
reactors at Hamaoka Nuclear Power Station in
Shizuoka Prefecture. Both these reactors have been
suspended for some time
and improvements to make them active again are believed to be too costly,
hence the reported plan to build a new reactor. Decommissioning of the two old
reactors is expected to be
completed around 2035 while the new reactor
should be built by 2018, according to the report.
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