One interesting bit about the Kansai Airport work was that the Dutch advised the Japanese to leave the reclaimed land untouched for a while (20 years or so) so it could settle, the Japanese ignored the advice because they had run the numbers and realized dealing with the damage from the settling was more profitable.
We're cheap, it's a local joke that copper wire was invented by two Dutch traders fighting over a single coin, I think the idea of wasting good materials on unstable ground just didn't sit right with the Dutch engineers but the Japanese had no problem with it at all. I wonder how the Japanese look at this today from a financial perspective.
For instance:
https://nltimes.nl/2017/08/30/new-orleans-turns-netherlands-...
One interesting bit about the Kansai Airport work was that the Dutch advised the Japanese to leave the reclaimed land untouched for a while (20 years or so) so it could settle, the Japanese ignored the advice because they had run the numbers and realized dealing with the damage from the settling was more profitable.
We're cheap, it's a local joke that copper wire was invented by two Dutch traders fighting over a single coin, I think the idea of wasting good materials on unstable ground just didn't sit right with the Dutch engineers but the Japanese had no problem with it at all. I wonder how the Japanese look at this today from a financial perspective.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/how-to-sav...
Edit: I originally wrote Narita, instead of Kansai.