Contractors rush in as Kan pledges to rebuild after Japan earthquake

Japanese contractors have rushed workers, generators and equipment to areas devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that damaged or destroyed more than 110,000 buildings and may have killed 20,000 people.

“We’ve had many, many requests” for floodlights, power equipment and construction gear since the temblor, said Takashi Yamada, a spokesman for Osaka-based Nishio Rent All Co. “We’re just sorry we don’t have enough stock for everyone.”

The government has asked companies such as Daiwa House Industry Co to supply more than 30,000 temporary houses within two months to help shelter the 350,000 people now in evacuation centres. Prime Minister Naoto Kan has also pledged to “rebuild from scratch” following the magnitude-9 quake and tsunami that damaged about 1,500 roads, 48 bridges and 15 railways.

“The scale of the rebuilding will be huge,” said Kazuo Susa, a spokesman for Fukuda Corp, a general contractor based in Niigata prefecture, northwestern Japan.

Fukuda started inspecting buildings the day after the quake and it began repairs to facilities including shopping centers the following day to help customers resume operations, Susa said. The company is now reinstalling fallen ceilings and working on other repairs in buildings that avoided the worst of the damage as it awaits the start of full-fledged reconstruction, he said.

Speculation that Fukuda will win rebuilding contracts has caused it to jump 92 per cent on the Tokyo stock exchange since March 10, the last day of trading before the quake. That’s the third-best performance among the 1,666 companies on the index, which has dropped 8.1 per cent.