What are the objectives of i-Construction 2.0? Organize the background for its introduction into four points

Table of Contents

• What is i-Construction 2.0?

• Purpose of i-Construction 2.0

• Introduction background 1 Decline in the working-age population and shortage of workers

• Background 2: Increasing Severity and Frequency of Disasters

• Introduction Background 3: Aging infrastructure and increasing maintenance and management burdens

• Implementation Background 4: DX Going Full-Scale and the Need for Data Integration

• How Will Construction Sites Change with i-Construction 2.0?

• Practical points companies advancing implementation should be aware of

• Summary

What is i-Construction 2.0?

i-Construction 2.0 is a policy compiled by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in April 2024 aimed at automating construction sites. It aims to reduce on-site labor by at least 30% by fiscal year 2040, that is, to achieve a 1.5-fold increase in productivity, and positions three pillars: "automation of construction", "automation of data linkage", and "automation of construction management".

As a premise, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has been promoting i-Construction since fiscal 2016, expanding the use of ICT across the entire construction production process from surveying and measurement to design, construction, inspection, maintenance and renewal. As a result, the productivity improvement ratio for directly managed projects, based on the time-saving effects of ICT construction, has been reported as reaching 21% compared with fiscal 2015. In other words, the initiatives to date have produced certain results.

Furthermore, what makes i-Construction 2.0 important is that it is not merely an extension of ICT adoption, but shifts the policy focus from "utilization of ICT and related technologies" to "automation." The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has outlined that, in order to sustain the development and maintenance of social infrastructure into the future amid population decline, current measures alone could lead to a ceiling in productivity improvements, and that fundamental labor-saving measures are necessary—measures that encompass construction in which a single person manages multiple machines, data integration centered on BIM/CIM, and construction management that includes remote operation and off-site processes.

The key point here is that i-Construction 2.0 is not a term referring to specific technologies or machines. Rather, it is a framework for how to change the overall management of construction sites, linking construction, paperwork, inspections, design changes, and maintenance into a single flow of data, and aiming to separate hazardous and repetitive tasks from people as much as possible. Even if the term sounds new, it is easier to grasp the whole picture if you understand it as a policy that reorganizes the way work is carried out on construction sites.

Objectives of i-Construction 2.0

In one phrase, the goal of i-Construction 2.0 is to create a system that will not stop the development and maintenance of social infrastructure even as the population declines. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism aims to increase each worker’s output and added value at construction sites and to realize highly productive worksites where a small workforce can work safely and in a comfortable environment.

In the official documents, the objectives are not limited to productivity alone. In addition to advancing labor-saving measures at construction sites by at least 30% by fiscal year 2040, they include ensuring safety by reducing the risk of harm to people through automation and remote operation of construction machinery, implementing work-style reforms that shift harsh, outdoor-centered tasks to more comfortable environments, and supporting flexible ways of working that make effective use of time and place and promote the active participation of a diverse workforce.

Each of the three pillars established for that purpose has a clear role. Automation of construction involves using sensors and AI to collect on-site information, with the idea of moving toward a model where a single operator can manage the operations of multiple construction machines. Automation of data integration aims to link surveying, design, construction, and maintenance with 3D data through BIM/CIM and similar tools, with the goal of reducing manual entry of the same data, document searching, and waiting for responses to inquiries. Automation of construction management extends remote presence to inspections and is an initiative to reduce on-site staffing and streamline site management itself through image analysis, precast technologies, and strengthening communication infrastructure.

Additionally, official materials state that the goal is to transform the construction industry into one that is attractive in terms of wages and vacation. If productivity increases, the same number of workers can generate greater value, making planned construction and securing a full two-day weekend easier to achieve. In other words, i-Construction 2.0 is not only a policy for improving on-site efficiency but also a human resources policy to make the construction industry an industry chosen by younger generations and diverse talent.

It is often misunderstood in practice: the "personnel reduction" referred to here is not simply aimed at cutting the number of people. It is the idea of maintaining the necessary construction capacity by replacing manual tasks, hazardous work, and repetitive inspection tasks that people have handled with AI, systems, and remote technologies, allowing people to focus on management and high-level decision-making. The essence is not to respond passively to labor shortages, but to change the structure of work and transform sites so they can operate with fewer people.

Introduction Background 1 Declining Working-Age Population and Shortage of Workers

The most significant underlying factor is that the workforce itself is shrinking. According to materials from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, the working-age population is projected to fall from approximately 75.09 million in fiscal 2020 to approximately 62.13 million in fiscal 2040, a decline of about 20% compared with fiscal 2020. It is not just the construction sector that is particularly hard-hit; across Japan it is becoming increasingly difficult to assume that "bringing in people will solve the problem."

Furthermore, the construction industry faces challenges in its workforce structure itself. In the Reiwa 7 edition of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism’s White Paper, as of 2024 the proportion of construction industry workers aged 55 and over is 36.7%, and those 29 and under is 11.7%, indicating that the industry is older than the overall industry average. In addition, from April 2024 an upper limit regulation on overtime work has been applied to the construction industry, and to secure young workers it is necessary to simultaneously correct long working hours and improve productivity.

Therefore, operations that rely on experienced workers’ know-how and long on-site working hours as before are not sustainable. To maintain construction volume amid a decline in skilled workers, it is rational for a small number of experienced personnel to oversee the entire site, to supplement decision-making information with data, and to shift machine operation and inspection tasks toward remote operation and automation. The reason i-Construction 2.0 emphasizes work in which one person manages multiple construction machines and ways of working that use data shared on the cloud is that this structural labor shortage is the underlying cause.

Moreover, the shortage of workers is not a problem only for prime contractors. If securing personnel becomes difficult across the entire spectrum—including regional construction firms and specialist subcontractors that support public works—it will directly affect contracting authorities’ plans and the speed of disaster recovery. Precisely for this reason, i-Construction 2.0 is positioned not merely as a policy to improve the efficiency of individual companies, but as a policy to protect the infrastructure delivery system itself that underpins citizens’ daily lives.

Background 2: Increasing Severity and Frequency of Disasters

The second background is that the importance of disaster response has been increasing year by year. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has concluded that, due to the effects of recent climate change, short, intense downpours and record-breaking rainfall and snowfall, flooding and landslides caused by typhoons, and traffic disruptions have been intensifying and occurring more frequently. It further states that, when disasters occur, local guardians are expected to promptly undertake recovery and reconstruction even in the context of population decline.

In disaster response, simply completing work quickly is not enough. At sites with a risk of slope failure, a high risk of inundation, or harsh conditions such as snowy, cold regions, the very act of keeping workers away from hazardous areas is itself of significant value. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism also states that, in i-Construction 2.0’s labor-saving measures, it is necessary to consider the intensification and increased frequency of disasters, harsh site conditions, and regional characteristics, and has indicated a policy to expand remote and automated construction even during normal times.

In fact, in fiscal year 2024, 21 remote construction projects were carried out on projects commissioned by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, and a policy was announced to formulate procurement rules for construction contracts to enable further implementation in fiscal year 2025. This indicates that remote construction is being institutionalized on the premise that it is not a special technology exclusive to disaster recovery, but will also spread to routine construction. The aim of i-Construction 2.0 is not simply to be able to operate unmanned only during disasters, but to accumulate experience in remote and automated operations during normal times and to have a system that can switch over in emergencies.

Furthermore, during disasters, shortages of personnel and the challenge of ensuring safety emerge simultaneously. While it is difficult to assemble enough people on site, access to hazardous areas is most restricted immediately after an event. Precisely for that reason, systems that remotely acquire on-site data and enable construction and inspection to be carried out from a distance are directly tied to maintaining social functions in emergencies, beyond their peacetime efficiency benefits. This is why i-Construction 2.0 is discussed in connection with strengthening disaster response capabilities.

Introduction Background 3: Aging Infrastructure and Increasing Maintenance Burden

The third background is the aging of existing infrastructure. According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism’s infrastructure maintenance information, the proportion of facilities more than 50 years old will increase rapidly over the next 20 years, and by March 2040 road bridges are expected to reach about 75%, tunnels about 52%, and port facilities about 68%. The wave of deterioration will extend widely beyond roads to rivers, water supply, sewerage, and ports.

The problem is that while the number of aging assets is increasing, there is not an abundance of personnel to manage them. According to materials from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, the total number of staff in municipal civil engineering departments has declined, and in one quarter of municipalities nationwide no technical staff are assigned. In other words, although the need for renewal and repairs is growing, the engineers responsible for inspections, design changes, and construction management are limited.

Given this situation, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism is calling for a full-scale shift to preventive maintenance for infrastructure. Rather than responding after failures occur, taking early action based on inspection results and historical data requires organizing and sharing information. Measures to address aging infrastructure are not completed by on-site repair work alone; they are also a matter of data linkage across inspection, diagnosis, design, construction, and decisions on renewal.

Thus, under i-Construction 2.0, a direction has been set to promote labor-saving in construction management and maintenance management through measures such as as-built inspections using image analysis, equipment inspections by autonomous and remotely operated robots, the use of drones and AI, and the expansion of precast. This means that countermeasures for aging can no longer be managed by relying on manpower and must shift to operations premised on data and remote technologies.

Background 4: Full-Scale DX and the Necessity of Data Integration

The fourth factor is that the technical conditions for implementing DX have come together. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism points out that, while innovative technologies such as AI, 5G, and the cloud are being implemented in society, diverse infrastructure-related data are scattered and not sufficiently linked with other data such as human flow, logistics, topography, and weather. Conversely, this means that if data can be connected, there remains significant potential to improve efficiency in surveying, design, construction, and maintenance and management.

At the center of this is BIM/CIM. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism began the principle-based application of BIM/CIM from fiscal 2023, but it has also clearly identified challenges. Specifically, what data is required at each stage has not been organized and therefore cannot be effectively utilized, and because 2D drawings and 3D models are not linked, 3D models do not function adequately as contractual documents. In other words, simply creating 3D models is not enough—unless the data structures that connect to downstream processes are established, true labor savings will not be realized.

Additionally, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has indicated a policy to develop and pilot tools, targeting fiscal 2026, that enable quantities calculated by three-dimensional models and design-support software to be directly used in quantity takeoff and cost estimation. This is an approach to cultivate BIM/CIM not as mere visualization tools but as a foundation directly linked to cost estimation, design changes, and construction-stage operations. If data becomes central to the workflow, the divide between site and office work will narrow, making it easier to reduce reliance on individual workers.

That is why, in i-Construction 2.0, automating data linkage is central. It seeks to reduce repeated entry of the same data, unnecessary surveys and inquiries, time spent searching for documents, and paper-centered back-office work, and to create a flow that connects design data directly to construction and cost estimation. In fact, the outline of the FY Reiwa 8 budget decision also lists support for local governments in introducing ICT-enabled construction, the establishment of data management environments for BIM/CIM, on-site implementation of automation and remote technologies, and the streamlining of supervisory inspections using digital technologies, showing that DX has entered a phase of continuous implementation.

How Will Construction Sites Change with i-Construction 2.0?

As i-Construction 2.0 advances, changes on-site will not be limited to mere mechanization. The biggest shift is that investigation and surveying, design, construction, inspection, and maintenance will no longer be separate tasks but will be treated as a continuous flow that carries forward the same data. If 3D data and attribute information from the design stage can be used directly for construction and cost estimation, the work of transcribing or reconstructing data will decrease and causes of rework will be reduced. That field efficiency and back-office efficiency advance simultaneously is a major difference from traditional, partial-optimization DX.

Next, the premise of site management will shift from "always going to the site" to "accessing the necessary data when needed." By extending remote on-site presence to inspections, using image analysis to confirm as-built conditions, inspecting with robots and drones, and sharing videos and 3D models over high-speed networks, travel and waiting times can be reduced. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has stated that, in automating construction management, it will also promote the use of data aligned with the national coordinate system, making the consistency between location information and site records increasingly important.

Also, the approach to site forms and paperwork will change. Instead of creating data for the sake of paper, workflows will shift to using the data obtained on site directly for verification, sharing, inspection, and analysis. The idea of reducing time spent searching for documents and waiting for inquiries, and visualizing required information with BI tools to support decision-making, affects not only on-site workers but also supervisory personnel and back-office departments. This is why i-Construction 2.0 calls for simultaneous reform of both on-site operations and the back office.

Furthermore, site operations will shift from experience dependence to data dependence. If operational data and location information obtained from construction machinery are consolidated under common rules and shared in real time, it will become easier to make on-the-spot decisions for schedule adjustments, personnel allocation, and reductions in waiting time. The roadmap also envisions short-term use of real-time data, medium-term standardization of automated construction under certain conditions, and long-term goals of automated and optimized construction at large-scale sites; rather than all sites becoming unmanned at once, the trajectory is a phased progression from "visualization" to automation.

Practical Points Companies Advancing Implementation Should Keep in Mind

When implementing i-Construction 2.0 on-site, it is not necessary to introduce large-scale automated construction across the board from the start. Rather, what is important is to organize the data entry points. If fundamentals—such as which coordinate system will be used to manage survey results, photographs, as-built records, design changes, and inspection records; in what formats they will be shared; and how to maintain the relationship between 3D models and 2D drawings—remain unclear, the benefits of automation will not be stable. Official materials also cite insufficient organization of required data and the lack of linkage between 2D and 3D as major issues.

Next, it is practical to begin with tasks where the effects are easy to see. For example, transport planning for earthworks, repetitive as-built verification, remote site attendance, image analysis, and visualization of construction data are areas where benefits are relatively easy to confirm. A 2025 Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism document also introduces a case in which, by visualizing bottlenecks and waiting times using machine operation data and reviewing transport routes and machine capacity, daily construction output increased by 25%, the schedule was shortened by 8 days, and it led to labor savings totaling 80 people. The important point is not to change all processes at once, but to standardize starting with the processes that produce results.

Also, it is important to start with themes that can be tackled regardless of your company's size. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has prepared a guide to ICT construction techniques for small-scale works and has also organized examples of 3D measurement technologies and small ICT construction machines that can be used at small sites. Even at sites that are not large-scale earthworks, such as municipal construction or repair works, the digitization of measurement, setting out, as-built management, and photo records is a domain that can be fully addressed. i-Construction 2.0 is not just about large dams and tunnels.

Finally, do not neglect organizational development and human resource training. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) has indicated it will implement a training program for automated construction coordinators from FY2025, and in FY2024 held 30 unmanned construction training sessions attended by a total of 1,018 people. Support for local governments, an ICT adviser system, training for companies with no prior experience, and the development of guidance for small-scale construction are also being advanced. In other words, i-Construction 2.0 is not just about some large-scale sites; the system is designed on the premise that it will be implemented across the board, including small and medium-sized enterprises and municipal projects. Assigning staff in-house who understand both data and construction, and increasing the parts you can in-source while leveraging external support, will create a significant long-term advantage.

Summary

The purpose of i-Construction 2.0 is to sustain the development and maintenance of infrastructure while maintaining construction capacity at worksites even as population decline progresses. Behind this are four major changes: a decrease in the working-age population and a shortage of skilled workers, increasing severity and frequency of disasters, aging infrastructure, and the full-scale advancement of DX. That is precisely why the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism is attempting to automate "construction", "data linkage", and "construction management" together.

What's important is to view i-Construction 2.0 not as a distant vision of complete unmanned operation, but as a practical matter of how to change today's site recordkeeping, surveying, as-built confirmation, inspection preparation, and design-change processes. If the site's input data are properly organized, it becomes much easier to connect end-to-end from construction through inspection and maintenance; conversely, if the input remains ambiguous, even advanced automation will not take hold. The true value of the policy is determined by whether it can be incorporated into daily workflows.

The first practical step is not flashy unmanning but standardizing everyday operations so that location information and on-site records are correctly linked. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism is also promoting the use of data compliant with the national coordinate system in the automation of construction management, and the quality of input data determines the efficiency of downstream processes. In that sense, incorporating mechanisms like LRTK that make it easy to collect records with location information on-site without burden into workflows is a practical and effective option to bring i-Construction 2.0 closer to field implementation.