Japanese construction has slowed down.

A new law calling for stringent earthquake-proofing of new buildings has caused a slump in the Japanese construction market, according to a report in the UK’s The Times newspaper.

The article states that, under the new law, builders have to put forward new plans to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport for construction projects that are already underway – and that the Government has not allocated enough resources to deal with these plan submissions.

This has caused delays and generated the risk that existing projects will be turned down by the Government, so builders feel discouraged from starting or continuing with any projects.

Speaking to The Times, Hiroshi Shiraishi, an economist with Lehman Brothers, said the law had ‘effectively destroyed an entire segment of the economy’, describing it as ‘ridiculous’.