A study on the concrete measure for developing competence of Japanese construction industry in international construction market

Japanese construction industry after the burst of bubble economy is facing problems such as reduction of domestic construction investment and low bidding for construction projects. Moreover, there have been growing concerns on opening the Japanese construction market to international constructors, reforming bidding system and eradicating the collusive bidding-Dango in construction projects. It is assumed that future prospect of construction market includes entry of overseas companies to Japanese construction market and expansion of overseas business of Japanese construction companies in outside world. These issues require the Japanese construction industry to change its operating principle from “principle of cooperation” to “ principle of competition”. In addition, the Japanese construction industry will require having project management competitiveness in addition to technological excellence in order to be competitive in international construction market. This paper presents a comparative study of project management in construction in Japanese and the US construction industry. The findings discussed in this paper are useful for the construction industry stakeholders for construction industry reformation and for improving international competitiveness of Japanese contractors.