Yasuyuki WATANABE

A study on Japanese construction companies' attitudes toward overseas infrastructure construction projects and directions of government supports

Kiichiro HATOYAMA

The government of Japan hopes to promote infrastructure construction projects overseas, and in recent years has been using overseas projects as one of the important diplomatic means of fostering pro-Japanese awareness in developing countries. On the other hand, it has been pointed out that overseas business involves many troubles and fierce international competition with competitors exists. Due to these circumstances, if construction companies are forcibly engaged in overseas business, the government should provide appropriate support that meets the demands and prospects of construction companies. Therefore, in this study, after observing the overseas expansion situation of Japanese construction companies, we grasped their attitudes toward overseas infrastructure construction projects and considered the directions of government support. 
First, we conducted a cluster analysis based on the data of countries in which construction companies engage in overseas projects. From the characteristics of companies in each cluster, we defined three clusters as �gcompanies focusing Asian middle-income countries�h, �gcompanies focusing western higher-income countries�h, and �gcompanies focusing distant lower-income countries�h.
Second, we conducted interview surveys with several general contractors and a construction consultant to understand the company's attitudes toward overseas infrastructure construction projects. Furthermore, we conducted a questionnaire survey for 51 regular member companies of The Overseas Construction Association of Japan, Inc. (OCAJI) to understand the distribution of attitudes toward opinions obtained in the interview survey. Then, after confirming the overall tendency from the answer results, we analyzed the differences in the tendencies of the companies for each cluster.
Third, in order to understand the opinion of upstream parties on the overseas infrastructure projects and share the survey results on construction companies' attitudes, we conducted interview surveys with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).