With all the excitement about the rapid growth of China, people forget that Japan is the second biggest economy in the world. It is a difficult market for foreign firms to enter, but prices are kept high by the lack of competition, meaning there is a lot of money to be made there.
The water industry is no exception. Apart from the equipment and chemical suppliers, that largely sell through local distributors, Veolia is the only firm that has managed to make an impact. After significant up-front investment and the acquisition of multiple local firms they have won a number of short operations contracts.
The rest of the water industry can benefit from this effort, as local authorities and institutions become more accepting of foreign businesses operating there. As far as I know, only one multinational design firm (Arup) has any presence in Japan whatsoever, and they do not have a water business there.
While Japan has a lot of rainfall, the density of population (everyone crammed onto the coastal river plains) and the intensity of rainfall events mean that they have plenty of water and environment issues to be addressed. Indirect potable reuse is already the norm in Japan, because many water treatment plants are drawing from rivers below wastewater treatment plants.
If I was running an engineering firm or water treamment business I would be looking very closely at potential acquisition targets in Japan right now.
Filed under: industry trends, Japan Tagged: | acquisition targets, Japan, linkedin, water opportunities
