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REGIONALREPORT JAPAN
IRNAPRIL-MAY 2015
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Japan’s largest rental company, Aktio – which
enjoys rental revenues of close to €1.5 billion -
believesnot, itsconfidencebackedupby theopening
of its Mie Inabe Techno Park branch, which covers
80000 square metres in the west of the country. A
largedistribution centre is planned for Koto inTokyo
next year as Japan gears up for the 2020 Olympic
andParalympicGames.
Aktio’s Makoto Yoshida told
IRN
: “The Japanese
economy is proceeding favourably due to the
reflation plan of Abenomics [named after the
country’s prime minister] as well as the domestic
construction and construction machine rental
markets.
“The public works and repair works following the
earthquake in the east of Japan have also helped
our sales from last year.”
Aktio has invested “actively” in its fleet in recent
years and its most popular products with rental
companies are generators and compact equipment.
Mr Yoshida said safety, ease of maintenance,
environmental performanceand resale valueare the
keydrivers inproduct design.
Bullish
Masaki Kurita of Nikken Corporation is similarly
positive, and said he expects year on year revenue
growthof 3.8% in 2015.
“Themarket is strong,” saidMr Kurita.
“By bullish investment on equipment and high
utilisation of fleets, big rental companies are
breaking records of revenues and net earnings
despite the fact that rental rates in the market
have not returned to those prevailed before the
bankruptcyof LehmanBrothers inSeptember 2008.
“Theprivatesector seems tobegainingconfidence
andmore optimistic. Recovery and clean-up efforts
continue in the disaster affected areas of Tohoku
and Fukushima areas. Construction of buildings and
maintenance and repair of infrastructure are active
in big cities, and the Greater Tokyo area is expected
tobebusy for hosting in theOlympicGames in 2020.
“The challenges are increasing rental rates and
maintaining and improving the quality of repair and
maintenance of the fleet tokeepourcustomerssafe
and relaxed. Rental ratesof aerialworkplatformsare
increasing gradually, but the others are still below
thepre Lehman crisis level.”
Nishio Rent All feels that though the market has
passed the peak it experienced between 2012 and
2014, it is still strong and this could continue for
another three years. Primary expansion in the short
term will be of large scale equipment for domestic
projects in power plant and other construction
projects.
“Taking care of large domestic projects is a
good opportunity for us to introduce to Japan new
machines and technology already used worldwide.
We are thinking about spreading these technologies
into theJapanesemarket,” saida spokesman.
“We believe that there are possibilities for us
Kanamoto has noticed regional variations in Japan
