NEWSWORTHY
Bucking superstition, Japanese woman tunnels way to top of civil-engineering world
For civil engineer Reiko Abe, 55, being competent at her job was never enough. Her sex and the superstitions surrounding it caused her to be turned away from job interviews and construction sites in Japan. After clawing her way to the top of the male-dominated ...
Five dead, 40 injured by blaze at construction site in west Tokyo suburb of Tama
Five people died and around 40 were injured Thursday after a fire broke out at a three-story building under construction in Tama in western Tokyo and smoke engulfed the workers. Four of the deceased were described Friday as men between the ages of 44 and ...
Under new leader Mahathir, China's infrastructure projects in Malaysia are under threat
Malaysia was once a loyal partner in China's globe-spanning infrastructure drive but a new government is now pledging to review Beijing-backed projects, threatening key links in the much-vaunted initiative. Kuala Lumpur's previous regime, led by scandal-mired Prime Minister Najib Razak, had warm ties with China ...
Investigators should get to the bottom of the budding bid-rigging scandal to see whether the construction firms have in fact put their shady practices behind them.
Japan's labor-scarce building sites automating, turning to robots, drones
Construction sites in Japan are enjoying a wave of automation amid an increasing shortage of laborers, with the introduction of robots to do heavy lifting and drones that instantly collect aerial data. As the industry ages along with the country's graying society, construction companies are ...
Earthquake standards are on shaky ground
No one died in the recent earthquake that struck Tottori Prefecture, but the temblor was strong enough to cause extensive damage. Several thousand people are still in evacuation centers, which means it is not safe for them to live in their homes. Most of ...
India's foreign minister said the government is providing food aid to thousands of Indian workers in Saudi Arabia who are not able to buy food after losing their jobs in the kingdom. Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj said in a series of tweets over the weekend ...
Kenyan rescuers race to free woman trapped in rubble of collapsed building
Rescue workers on Thursday were racing to dig out a woman found alive under the rubble of a building in Kenya's capital that collapsed six days earlier, a senior official said. "She cannot move but she is safe," Pius Masai, an official leading the operation, ...
Binladin Group workers torch buses, snub exit visas to protest 50,000 layoffs, unpaid wages
Employees at the Saudi Binladin Group, a construction giant, have set fire to more than seven company buses in the latest protest by disgruntled staff over not being paid salaries for months and a large round of reported layoffs. Maj. Nayef al-Sharif, the spokesman for ...
Municipalities face local opposition in battle to build day care centers
A growing number of municipalities have been forced to delay or abandon plans for new day care centers across Japan because of fierce opposition from local residents, despite long waiting lists for such facilities. According to a Kyodo News survey covering municipalities in nine prefectures ...
Construction site sinkhole swallows stretch of Nagoya sidewalk
A stretch of brick sidewalk in Nagoya near a construction site caved in by about 5 meters on Monday evening but there were no injuries. The Aichi Prefectural Police closed traffic around the site and launched an investigation. According to the police, the site, where about ...
Heart of darkness: Nostalgic Tokyo disappearing amid construction boom
The Shinagawa neighborhood of Musashi-Koyama — a vibrant maze of tiny alleyways that once housed dozens of small eateries, tapas restaurants and bars — is now a virtual ghost town. Just a few months ago, regulars would have struggled to squeeze into the myriad watering ...
