Japan Just Printed a Train Station. Here’s Why It Matters.

In March, Japanese firm Serendix did something no other company has done before: 3D-print a train station. The new building was printed piece by piece over seven days and assembled at Hatsushima Station in Arida, Japan, in just over two hours—all without disrupting a single train. For a nation like Japan, suffering from an aging population, dwindling workforce, and declining infrastructure, this kind of rapid, cost-efficient construction could be the breakthrough it desperately needs.

The station walls were 3D-printed using cement mortar before being filled with concrete at an off-site factory and shipped to Arida. Steel reinforcements were then added to make the building as earthquake resistant as standard concrete homes. Just six workers handled the assembly, which took place between the last train of the night and the first of the morning, leaving many commuters surprised to see the new structure when they arrived at Hatsushima Station the next day. Ultimately, the station was built faster, cheaper, and with far fewer labor hours than traditional construction methods require.

In most countries, technology like this might trigger public outcries over job displacement. But in Japan, such uproar is absent. Japan is the oldest nation in the world, with 30 percent of its population over 65 years old and 10 percent over 80. As the population ages and the birth rate declines, Japan’s workforce hasn’t just plateaued—it’s shrinking. Since 2004, the size of Japan’s labor force has fallen by 2 percent; by comparison, the U.S. labor force has grown 9 percent, and South Korea’s by 14 percent.

Japan's declining workforce has already burdened its economy. There are not enough workers to fill vacant roles, including those in the construction industry. As a result, old and deteriorating infrastructure desperately needs updating, with no one to do the job. And despite having the world's third-largest economy, Japan ranks just 20th out of 38 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in productivity growth over the last decade.

But technology can help. Serendix’s 3D-printed station is just a glimpse of what an automated construction industry could look like in a labor-scarce country.

3D-printed construction has grown in popularity in recent years, as the technology has been promoted as a cheap and quick way to combat housing shortages, particularly in the United States and Europe. In fact, the market is projected to explode, growing from a $3.5 billion industry to a $523 billion industry by 2030, a 148-fold increase.

Yet the use of 3D printing for industrial and commercial buildings has been slim to none, with the notable exceptions of the Hatsushima Station and Wavehouse, a 3D-printed data center located in Heidelberg, Germany. Completed in October of 2023, the nearly 7,000-square-foot data center took just one month to print and was completed in six months, with the majority of human labor used in assembly, not construction.

Japan’s demographic crisis is novel for the modern era and demands a novel solution. The Japanese government must adopt a strategy rooted in technological innovation, steering the country toward automation wherever possible. 3D printing offers one solution to the crisis, enabling Japan to modernize aging infrastructure and build new developments despite its shrinking labor force.

In the United States, where demand for homes and updated infrastructure far outweighs supply, the implications are clear: remove local and state regulatory barriers that limit the use of such construction technologies.