Japan – what can we learn? - Construction Labour Research

The differences between sites in the metropolitan region and thecountryside result first from the ground available and second from thesize of the buildings. The first makes it more difficult to organise sitesin cities. Though Japanese firms have clearly learnt to deal with this,my impression is that the result is not a particular form of organisation(at least one that is obvious to me). The second seems to disappearmore and more, because both in cities and in the country side there isbig housing market for smaller houses and a tendency to biggerbuildings for all other needs (offices, factories …). Thus, technicallyspeaking, the differences do not seem to be very big. Socially (i.e.skills, work organisation …) it seems to be, roughly, the same.In the Japanese construction industry only few large companies exist.Most of the firms are very small (with less than 20 employees). Thereare also some labour-only contractors and self-employed working onthe sites. Additionally you have about the same amount of so-called‘freelance’ workers, who work probably in design, consulting, etc.According to recent research and statistics the share of the smallestcompanies (i.e. self-employed, freelanced) is not particularly high, butthe interview partners considered that there is quite a lot of clandestinework (and probably illicit work, too) at this lower end of theproduction chain.Construction companies working on the market for large buildingsstart their work with the design of the building, but are not involved insite operations. Those companies serving the housing market alsobegin with the design (but there is a small number of standardizedhouses [the share of standardized house seems to be big, but it variesonly little], for which massive advertisement is made on TV, in[weekly] papers, and in public transport).According to the interview partners at Kenseiken (Kensetsu SeisakuKennkyuusyo – research institute for construction industry policies)the share of smallest companies (mostly self-employed and labouronlycontractors) must not be underestimated, because it is still usualin Japan to use a system of independent gangs, created “off the cuff”.The client, a general contractor or a subcontractor asks a selfemployedworker to take care of a trade. To do this he collectsworkers on the market to meet the time-schedule. I assume, therefore,CLR News No 2/200613