What's the law regarding late night construction work?

[deadhippo]

Hi,
recently I havent been able to sleep so well because night after night there is road work going on outside my apartment building. In the morning there is a bit of traffic on the road and a construction site across the road. By late night construction work I mean until 4 and later and by noise I'm talking about cutting metal and using a jackhammer. The kind of things that when you turn out the light and put your head on the pillow seem even louder.

In my country this kind of activity is illegal. I was wondering if anybody knows the situation in Japan regarding this kind of activity.

Actually I called the police but true to form they did nothing. They told me the construction workers got permission from a police staion which is not even the same area. I think they were bullshitting though.

[WHEATTHlNS]

What country are you frolm?

[Maciamo]

Night construction works are also prohibited in many EU countries as it distrubs people's sleep, and workers have certainly complained about not wanting to work at night (I can imagine them demonstrating for their 'rights not to work at night' in countries like France or Italy).

But Japan is a country where efficiency comes first, so workers work 24h (not the same people of course) so as to finish the construction as soon as possible and move on to another site. Or they are made to work at night to avoid being ditrubs by pedestrians (if working on cables under the pavement) or by the trafiic (if working on the road).

Construction comapnies in Japan are usually big and have a lot of power. They have lobbied successfully in keeping asbetos and poor quality materials legal so as to charge a lot for buildings using cheap materials. There has been hundreds of cases of bribes to government officials or "amakudari" - ex-high-ranking civil servant with connections being offered a board position in a construction company just to get public contracts.

Things are not going to change soon. But it's not as bad as in the US where the current administration gives public contracts (eg Iraq or New Orleans) to the construction company of the vice-president ('vice' is indeed the right word).

[GaijinPunch]

Just live with it. They generally won't do long term work at such hours. I had this problem once... lasted a couple of weeks. Then again, I was living about 3 feet from Koushukaido... it wasn't exactly a vaccuum to begin with.

[Maciamo]

Just live with it. They generally won't do long term work at such hours. I had this problem once... lasted a couple of weeks. Then again, I was living about 3 feet from Koushukaido... it wasn't exactly a vaccuum to begin with.

At least, one good thing about the Japanese street system is that a good part of the residential buldings are in very narrow street with almost no traffic (except delivery vans). So only those who live with a window on a main road suffer from the noise. Maybe that's why taller 'mansions" are build along main roads (to fend off the noise), and the price of apartments goes up with the floors.

[nurizeko]

As a bloke who cant sleep so easily if someone has the TV up just a tad too high, or coughs now and then, you can emagine i find the idea of late night construction outside my house worrying :S.

Hell, as far as i know my city's airport has closing times because people wont tolerate late-night-early-morning aircraft going over head.

I guess if you grow up in japan you get used to noise and people around all the time but no thanks, not for me, im british. :p

Nah, i like my sleep, and im used to relative peace to get it, god knows how i'll survive this christmas in Tokyo... :souka:

[DoctorP]

Usually this type of construction is only done on major roads at night. Smaller roads will be done during the daytime. Is the work being performed on the road itself or is this a contractor working on something else (water line, gas line, etc...?)

[WHEATTHlNS]

But it's not as bad as in the US where the current administration gives public contracts (eg Iraq or New Orleans) to the construction company of the vice-president

Might want to a little research on this claim of cronyism.

[Mike Cash]

It's a matter of inconveniencing thousands upon thousands of people (and commerce to boot) by doing the work during the day, or by causing a relatively much smaller number of people living adjacent to the construction some sleepless nights.

If you go to the site, you can find a board outlining all the details of the project, and you will find that they do indeed have permission to be doing what they're doing, when they're doing it.

[GaijinPunch]

Not only that, your tax yen are most likely paying for it!

[deadhippo]

thanks for the replies...im from Ireland where it is illegal except under special conditions
i live on a major road
last night was quiet...mmmm....sweet
tonight promises to be a big one though with no less than 3 areas under constuction
two electricity (one is far enough not to disturb me, i hope)
and the other is water
the electricity started in August and they assured me that they would be keeping me awake untill march, if things remain on schedule
the water...who knows

i got this at another forum...click here (http://www.env.go.jp/en/lar/nlaw/index.html) for the law regarding noise and a lesson in vagueness

id write more but I'm just so damned tired

thanks everybody who replied

[NovaTeacher]

tonight promises to be a big one though with no less than 3 areas under constuction......
........ the law regarding noise and a lesson in vagueness

I sympathize with your situation.

It seems like while we are in Japan, we have to accept that inconveniencing the flow of traffic is a more important issue than (our) the health and sleep of individuals.........and if we go looking for laws to support our ideas of rights, justice and commonsense, we'll meet vagueness created to support the idea that the unwritten law of `people in power making decisions` is law.

[RockLee]

Same thing happened to me in China...those people don't know when to quit ! Like they put it so nicely: "Time is money" ;-)