Taisei and Kajima began a 120-day business suspension on November 7 over collusion on maglev work, blocking JR Central from signing the contract that would let the long-stalled Shizuoka section break ground.
The Supreme Court upheld guilty verdicts against the two contractors on September 14, fining each ¥250 million. Their responsible managers received one-year-six-month prison terms, suspended for three years.
The land ministry imposed the suspension under the Construction Business Act on October 23. It runs until March 6 and bars the companies from new contracts or contract renewals.
JR Central had hoped to start work in Shizuoka after the prefecture's expert panel accepted all its explanations in March, ending roughly eight years of dialogue. Talks with Taisei on renewing the contract dragged on for more than six months without agreement.
Price and Schedule Remain Unresolved
The fee and construction period were the main sticking points in those talks. Negotiations cannot resume until the suspension ends, and a quick settlement looks unlikely.
Without a renewed contract, JR Central cannot hold the groundbreaking ceremony and safety rite it treats as the start of work in the section. Even after a start, moving heavy equipment and other preparatory work would come before any tunnel boring.
The delay puts at risk the early opening of the line between Shinagawa and Nagoya. The prospect of a Nagoya opening is itself now hard to see.
Prosecutors Targeted Three Sections
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office indicted Taisei, which won the Yamanashi and Shizuoka sections, and Kajima, which won the Nagano section, in March 2018. The charge was violating the Antimonopoly Act.
Obayashi and Shimizu, which won the south and north sections at Shinagawa Station, reported themselves to the Fair Trade Commission and cooperated. They accepted their first-instance convictions.
Taisei and Kajima argued their innocence throughout and fought to the Supreme Court, which dismissed their appeal.
Collusion That Was Not Ordinary
Many civil engineering specialists say JR Central, which placed the orders, was not simply a victim. Ordinary bid-rigging assumes any contractor would deliver roughly the same result, and that assumption does not hold here.
The South Alps tunnel runs through major faults and under enormous overburden — the distance from the surface to the tunnel ceiling. At more than 250 meters, heavy overburden risks subsidence and collapse.
Overburden of 1,400 meters makes the work unprecedented, and few companies can handle a tunnel considered close to impossible to bore. Reducing uncertainty is what makes such a project technically feasible, the argument goes.
The collusion case was first reported by President Online.