Start up to forecast risk of sinkholes due to damaged pipes as infrastructure ages across Japan

TOKYO - A start-up established by officials of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is going to start a business of forecasting risks of damage in underground sewage pipes by utilising data sent from satellites and an artificial intelligence programme.

As it is believed that a sinkhole accident in Yashio, Saitama Prefecture, was caused by damage to an underground sewage pipe, the start-up aims to prevent a recurrence of a similar accident by increasing the efficiency of risk forecasts made during checks of sewage pipes.

The startup is Tokyo-based Tenchijin Inc, which was established in 2019. The company received a capital contribution of ¥10 million (S$89,300) from JAXA, and it is allowed to use JAXA’s intellectual properties such as technology to analyse data from satellites.

The company aims to begin a business in which the risk of damage to sewage pipes is forecast in several stages, the stages are indicated in different colors on maps and the company provides the analysis results to local governments, starting in the latter half of fiscal 2025.

To make forecasts, data from a geostationary meteorological satellite Himawari and Daichi-4, an advanced land observing satellite that uses radar, are utilized so that ground deformation and other signs of sinkholes can be detected.

The company’s own AI analyses the data together with information possessed by local governments such as when sewage pipes were laid, and then it calculates the risk of damage.

The company plans to finish a technology test in the first half of fiscal year 2025 and begin the service as a commercial business.

According to statistics from the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry, there were about 2,600 accidents on roads or sinkholes caused by trouble related to sewage pipes in fiscal year 2022, and 45 per cent of them occurred from June