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Yomiuri Shimbun file photo A large sinkhole in Yashio, Saitama Prefecture, is seen from a Yomiuri Shimbun helicopter on Feb. 3.
The Yomiuri Shimbun
14:37 JST, March 23, 2025
A startup 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 utilizing data sent from satellites and an artificial intelligence program.
As it is believed that a sinkhole accident in Yashio, Saitama Prefecture, was caused by damage to an underground sewage pipe, the startup 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 from JAXA, and it is allowed to use JAXA’s intellectual properties such as technology to analyze 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 analyzes 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 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 2022, and 45% of them occurred from June to August when ground surface temperatures usually rise.
According to the company, if ground surface temperatures rise, the temperature inside sewage pipes also increases and hydrogen sulfide, which causes erosion on the inner surfaces of the pipes, forms more easily.
Many local governments cannot check all sewage pipes at once partly because of a manpower shortage.
If technology to forecast damage is available, local governments can decide the order of priority to conduct checks and perform the work more efficiently.
The company has already provided a service called Space Waterworks Bureau in which the risk of damage to sewage pipes is evaluated in five stages and indicated in 100-meter-by-100-meter cells on maps with colors in accordance with the risk stages.
More than 20 local governments, including the Tokyo metropolitan government and the Ibaraki prefectural government, have introduced the service.
The aging of sewage pipes is predicted to rapidly progress from now. Therefore, the central government is also taking measures to cope with the problem.
“We want to visualize risks under the ground,” said Tenchijin CEO Norito Higuchi
