Masuoka Gumi: striving to be a premiere social resilience company

As it approaches its 120th anniversary, Masuoka Gumi aims to build on its reputation as a trusted partner in the construction sector

Masuoka Gumi is one of the longest standing and most reputed players in Japan's construction industry, providing world-class civil engineering and building construction services since its establishment in 1908. Proudly boasting a portfolio made up of several hundred successfully completed projects, the company designs and constructs roads, bridges, tunnels, and residential and commercial buildings, as well as offering real estate sales and brokerage services.

Over its 115-year history, Masuoka Gumi has had to adapt to the ever-changing needs and challenges of the construction industry. Today, one of the industry's main challenges involves successfully adopting the latest DX (digital transformation) technologies to improve efficiency and productivity amid a backdrop of labor shortages and growing environmental concerns due to climate change. It is an area in which Masuoka Gumi aims to lead the charge in Japan, as company president Soichiro Masuoka explains.

"In the past, it was more efficient to focus on having multiple workers take care of one construction-related task, rather than focusing on increasing the capability of one worker, but the environment has drastically changed, and it's now important to increase per-capita productivity by utilizing DX and AI," he says, before giving some concrete examples of the company's DX initiatives.