Modification of Public-Private Partnership in Japan

Procurement system of public construction projects in Japan is changing with diversity in rapid pace. The quality assurance and risk management of construction projects should be more certain as the projects are turning into larger scale and more complexed. The clients in the public sector will want to make the relation of responsibility among the client, the designer (architects and engineers), and contractor clearer in terms of role and risk. Public-Private Partnership (PPP) is one of the methods for collaboration of the public sector and the private sector in public construction projects where the public utilizes the ability and suggestion of the private. Private Finance Initiative (PFI), Design-Build-Operate (DBO), market testing, designated manager system, outsourcing of tasks in local governments are well-known as examples of PPP in Japan. Indeed, there is an obvious trend that Design-Build (DB) is adopted in public construction projects in many countries including Japan. In this paper, the public construction projects in various procurement systems are surveyed and analyzed. They are not limited within the traditional procurement, Design-bid-Build, a separate order system of design and construction. Design-Build or PFI are adopted. In particular, contract by wide range including maintenance of equipment can be found. On the other hand, modification from originally typical PFI is taking place, such as concept design and project finance are removed from the roles and the tasks of the special purpose company (SPC) in PFI. Standard roles and tasks in a construction project are modeled in this paper.