5-4 The Establishment of the Civil Engineering Division and the Work of the U.S. Army’s Japan Construction Headquarters

In Taisho 8 (1919), Sumitomo established Osaka North Port Co., Ltd., believing that the expansion of port facilities was essential for Osaka’s economic development. However, as World War II entered its final stages, the government issued the “Corporate Reorganization Order” mandating the consolidation of similar companies, and Sumitomo complied with this order.
In Showa 19 (1944), the Hasebe & Takekoshi Architectural Office—a separate entity within Sumitomo—and Osaka North Port Co., Ltd. were merged in accordance with the government’s “Corporate Reorganization Order.”
After the war, this merger gave rise to two unexpected sources of vitality. One was the birth of the “Trading Division,” which would later become Sumitomo Corporation; the other was that Nikken Sekkei Construction came to possess a “Civil Engineering Division.”

Following the postwar spin-off of Nikken Sekkei Construction, the business operations of Osaka North Port Co., Ltd. were taken over by Sumitomo Corporation, while its technical operations were transferred to the civil engineering division of Nikken Sekkei Construction.Since “soil mechanics” was a critically important technical challenge in port construction and land reclamation projects, Osaka North Port Co., Ltd. had accumulated a wealth of expertise in this field.In 1953, Nikken Sekkei Construction, building on the technical track record and human resources developed at Osaka North Port, established a soil investigation department capable of handling all aspects—including boring and soil testing—in-house through its civil engineering division.The current approach—in which structural design is based on reliable data obtained through in-house investigations—was established at this time.
As mentioned in the previous article, factory design accounted for nearly half of Nikken Sekkei Construction’s work in the postwar period, and that track record has played a significant role in the development of today’s Nikken Sekkei. Civil engineering design—such as land development and foundations for heavy machinery—is essential for constructing vast steel mills.Large-scale factory projects require a system capable of carrying out architectural and civil engineering work in an integrated manner; it was precisely because Nikken Sekkei Construction had a civil engineering department that it was able to design and supervise steel mills and survive the harsh postwar era.

Following the signing of the Treaty of Peace with Japan in 1951, construction projects for U.S. military facilities in Japan began to be contracted directly by the U.S. military.The U.S. Forces in Japan recognized the value of Nikken Sekkei Komu’s civil engineering division and continuously awarded contracts to the company from Showa 27 (1952) to Showa 30 (1955).At a time when postwar reconstruction had only just begun and there was little significant demand for construction, this JCA project was like a godsend for Nikken Sekkei Construction.
The JCA required that the project be carried out using an American-style project management approach, involving a mixed team of civil engineering, architectural, and facilities specialists. This approach served as the foundation for Nikken Sekkei Construction’s formalization of its project manager system in 1962.Furthermore, the JCA required that drawings and specifications be prepared in English in accordance with U.S. military design standards. Through this work conducted in English, the company absorbed new technologies from the United States and incorporated them into the content and structure of its design specifications. The experience gained from these JCA projects also served as the foundation for building an organizational structure that allows the company to approach many of its current overseas projects with ease.

Nikken Sekkei Construction came to have a civil engineering division—almost as if by fate—amid the chaos surrounding the end of the war. However, this development has had far-reaching significance for the entire Nikken Group, extending from that time to the present day—a significance that could not have been foreseen at the time.Had Nikken Sekkei Construction not had a civil engineering division, today’s Nikken Sekkei would likely be an architectural firm lacking the strength that comes from diversity—that is, “Diversity.”
“Diversity” is one of the sources of the Nikken Group’s “strength.”
In 2001, the civil engineering division was spun off as Nikken Sekkei Civil. It undertakes industrial infrastructure development projects in the private sector, as well as the design of urban spaces and underground shopping districts related to social infrastructure. Today, the company is also involved in urban development projects around the world, including in China and Vietnam.