The Development of the Kansai Economic Zone Paves the Way for Japan's Future

INDEX

• Supporting various preparatory activities since four years ago
• Social infrastructure development efforts in the Kansai region
• The development of two economic zones, East and West, will shape Japan's future

Supporting various preparatory activities since four years ago

--The Osaka-Kansai Expo has finally opened

YAMAMOTO: This will be the first time that an international exposition (World Expo) will be held in Japan since Aichi Expo 2005. It will be 55 years since Osaka Expo 2070, which symbolized Japan's rapid economic growth, and 35 years since Osaka Flower Expo 2070. The Expo will be held for the third time in Osaka, the first time in 35 years since Osaka Flower Expo 2070. The venue is Yumeshima, a reclaimed land, and it is expected that about 28 million visitors will visit during the six-month period. As Tokyo continues to become over-concentrated, revitalizing the western bases alongside Tokyo is also very important for the balanced development of the country. I hope that it will be a big success.

TOJO: Today, everything in Japan is in Tokyo. There is a sense that nothing can begin until you go to Tokyo. Therefore, I think that revitalizing the Kansai region, including Osaka, will invigorate the whole of Japan. Osaka previously campaigned to host the 2008 Summer Olympics. Like this Expo, it was advertised as the "First Ocean Olympics," with Yumeshima as the venue, but it was decided that the event would be held in Beijing, China, and it was unfortunate that Osaka was not successful in hosting the Olympics.

--What kind of efforts has PACIFIC CONSULTANTS made in relation to the World Expo?

TOJO: The earliest was in May 2021, when we were commissioned as a JV to undertake the "Basic design of the landscape of the entire venue and pavilions, etc.", followed by the "Study of the second phase of urban development of Yumeshima (the artificial island where the Expo venue is located)" in September 2022, and we have been involved from the basic design of the entire Expo. Since then, we have been commissioned to carry out tasks such as "Support for simulation of people flow within the Expo venue," "Landscape facility implementation design," and "Current status survey and demand analysis of taxis in the Osaka Prefecture area," and we are currently supporting the implementation of measures from the perspective of transportation demand management (TDM).

YAMAMOTO: These are tasks directly related to the Expo, but in terms of infrastructure development in the Kansai region in anticipation of the Expo, we have been working on various initiatives in parallel. One of these is the development of the Kobe Airport terminal. Our company made the "Basic plan for roads on the premises, etc." and the "Basic study for improving the airport island's seawall." People from all over the world will come to the Expo. There are three airports in the Kansai region: Kansai International Airport (Kan-Ku), Osaka International Airport (Itami Airport), and Kobe Airport. However, only Kan-Ku has international flights, which is not enough. Therefore, we decided to first accept international charter flights at Kobe Airport, and developed the second terminal for international flights. The construction is complete and is scheduled to open on April 18, 2025.

Social infrastructure development efforts in the Kansai region

--You are working on various infrastructure development projects, not just for the World Expo.

YAMAMOTO: Because the Expo is a huge event, we have been entrusted with a variety of direct and indirect tasks, and as a company with its regional Headquarters in the Kansai region, we have been involved in various infrastructure development projects for many years.

--What kind of examples are there?

TOJO: Recently, there has been construction work on the extension of the Midosuji subway line (Kita-Osaka Kyuko Railway Namboku Line Construction), which will open in March 2024. This was finally agreed upon in 2014 by Osaka Prefecture, Kita-Osaka Kyuko Railway, Hankyu Railway, and Minoh City, and will extend the line by approximately 2.5 km north from Senri Chuo Station, which was the terminus at the time, and will include the construction of Minoh-Senba-Handaimae Station and Minoh-Kayano Station. Our company is responsible for the railway design and the basic design of the two new stations. Osaka is a long city stretching from north to south, but this extension has made it easier and faster to travel from the Minoh area to central Osaka, such as Shin-Osaka, Umeda, and Namba, without transfers, further strengthening transportation on the north-south axis. I think it will lead to the revitalization of Osaka as a whole.

YAMAMOTO: Osaka was called the "City of Water" during the Meiji era, and is a land blessed with thriving water transportation and rich waterfront scenery, but flood control is also a major theme. In February 2019, Osaka Prefecture decided to build new gates for the three major gates of Ajigawa Water Gate, Shirinashi River Water Gate, and Kizugawa Water Gate, as they had been in use for nearly half a century and were deteriorating, and they were required to be resistant to tsunamis caused by the Nankai Trough earthquake. A public proposal was solicited for the "Basic study of tsunami countermeasure facilities, etc.", and our company was selected as the best proposer, and we were subsequently commissioned to design the Kizugawa Water Gate in detail.

--Having Headquarters and covering the major fields related to social infrastructure development has led to a variety of initiatives.

YAMAMOTO: At Osaka Headquarters, we are responsible for a wide range of businesses, focusing on the national infrastructure business, transportation infrastructure business, social innovation business, and the newly established digital services business from this fiscal year. Although we have a wide range of technical fields, our organization is more compact than in Tokyo, making it easier to communicate between fields, which could be said to be a distinctive feature of Osaka Headquarters.

TOJO: The scope of our efforts is really wide. I have given the examples of railways, urban development, and rivers, but as part of our carbon neutral efforts, we were commissioned by Osaka City in August 2024 to carry out the "Osaka Port Carbon Neutral Port Formation Strategy Examination Project," in which the three ports of Osaka Port, Sakai-Semboku Port, and Hannan Port work together to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. We are currently formulating a promotion strategy for completion in February 2026. This strategy is an advanced and ambitious initiative that will include measures to be taken by the public sector to achieve carbon neutrality, as well as measures to be taken by the entire port, including private companies such as shippers, port operators, and shipping companies.

YAMAMOTO: Infrastructure maintenance is a challenge for any local government, but this is the second term that our joint venture with a local company has been entrusted with the "Sewerage pipeline facility maintenance and management work" in Suita City. In response to Suita City's shift from a "Reactive" to a "Preventive maintenance" approach, our company is taking on the overall management of comprehensive and planned maintenance work over a long period of time, not just one year, but over a five-year period. As of the end of fiscal year 2023, of the approximately 867 km of sewerage management length in Suita City, approximately 252 km (29%) were aged pipelines, and this will increase to approximately 40% over the next 10 years. With limited personnel and budgets, it is very effective to switch from direct management or individual outsourcing of infrastructure maintenance to a preventive maintenance type and comprehensively manage it through PPP, and our company has been working on advanced initiatives across the country, including in Sanjo City, Niigata Prefecture. In the case of Sanjo City, we also won the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Award at the 8th Infrastructure Maintenance Awards. We are currently working on initiatives in Suita City while utilizing that know-how.

TOJO: Infrastructure maintenance and management by local governments is a real issue. It is commonly called "Gunmane (Regional Infrastructure Group Regeneration Strategy Management)" and is expected to take a broad perspective, not be bound by traditional administrative districts, and to view multiple and multi-field infrastructure as a "Group," and to work together with other regions to maintain infrastructure. In the Kansai region, eight cities and four towns in the Senshu region have been selected as model regions for the Regional Infrastructure Group Regeneration Strategy Management. As part of efforts in this region, a comprehensive collaboration agreement on the maintenance and management of city and town roads was signed on March 31, 2025 between PACIFIC CONSULTANTS, eight cities and four towns in the Senshu region, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance, and the Graduate School of Engineering at Osaka University. Using Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance's drive recorders, road damage data will be obtained through AI image analysis, which will be analyzed and examined by the Graduate School of Engineering at Osaka University and PACIFIC CONSULTANTS, and the system will be built to be useful for preventive maintenance, such as setting appropriate management standards using quantitative data and clarifying the repair stock that will be required in the future. I think this will be a model initiative for the future.

The development of two economic zones, East and West, will shape Japan's future

-- Revitalizing the Kansai region will open up the future not only of Kansai but of Japan as a whole

TOJO: I have been working in the Kansai region, including Shikoku, for about 20 years. I think the Kansai region has a lot of potential. Osaka, Kobe, and Kyoto are all close to each other, there is the attractive Seto Inland Sea, and Shikoku is nearby. Our company is one of the investors in the Takamatsu Airport management business, and for the development of the region, there needs to be an attractive destination that people will want to visit using this airport. Our challenge going forward is how to make the Takamatsu, Kagawa, Shikoku, and Setouchi areas more attractive.

YAMAMOTO: Although Tokyo seems to stand out in the capital region, the Kansai region, including Shikoku, is an area where wide-area cooperation is easy. We want to take advantage of this to revitalize the entire Kansai and Shikoku region. At the same time, we also need to prepare for a Nankai Trough earthquake. The 2025 marks the 30th anniversary of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. There are already an increasing number of generations who do not know about the disaster, so I think it is our mission to convey the lessons learned and make the Kansai and Shikoku regions more resilient to disasters.
The World Expo is a hot topic right now, but it is not the goal, it is the start. As our company statement says, our mission is to "Identify social issues that change with the times and future social issues, and solve them through advanced services centered on infrastructure engineering." The theme of the Expo is "Designing a Future Society for Bright Life." We would like many people to use the Expo as an opportunity to come to Kansai, experience a new world, experience the future society, and think together about how to design a "Future for Bright Life."