Wamura’s Legacy - The Time Value of Value

In a previous blog, we explored how the value of infrastructure often remains invisible until a moment of crisis reveals it. Today, we travel back to 1960s Japan to examine another crucial principle: how the timing of infrastructure investment affects the value it delivers. 

Meet mayor Kotoku Wamura;, he spent billions of Japanese Yen (approximately $40 million AUD) on constructing a massive floodgate in Fudai-mura.

The opposition was fierce. Critics mocked the project as a huge waste of public funds. But Mayor Wamura had the courage to see it through, despite the political cost. 

When Wamura retired in 1987 many people still harboured resentment about his decisions, and the floodgate cast a shadow over Wamura's legacy. 

Fast forward to March 11, 2011. The Great Eastern Japan Earthquake struck, triggering the disaster that would infamously destroy the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. There was also a tsunami that brought waves as high as 38 meters, devastating entire communities and claiming tens of thousands of lives across many towns and villages. 

Except for... Fudai!

Fudai-mura was left virtually untouched. Wamura's controversial floodgate protected the village. After the tsunami, villagers brought flowers to the former mayor's grave — and they are still bringing them today. 

The floodgate Wamura invested in stood for 35 years before seeing action. During that time, it required ongoing maintenance, and many argued that $40 million could have been deployed elsewhere. 

Someone viewing this from a financial lens might agree with the above claim. After all, there is a "time value of money": money available today is worth more than the same amount in the future. 

But they would be forgetting the other side of that logic:  Time Value of Value. 

Just like money, the value generated by asset management — in this case, environmental resilience — has the same time variant value. The floodgate wasn't "doing nothing" for 35 years. From the moment it was installed, it was actively providing value by mitigating flood risk. Negative risk equals positive value. 

We often misconceive value as instantaneous; something created only in moments of crisis. In reality, infrastructure assets like Wamura's floodgate hold value from the moment they are built, much like how the whale tail sculpture we discussed in our previous blog always held aesthetic value, even before it accidentally provided safety value.