Despite Japan’s abundant rainfall, water shortages still occur. Against the backdrop of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism establishing a Water Shortage Information Liaison Office and publishing the 2026 edition of The Current State of Japan’s Water Resources, this article analyzes the structure of water resources and their proximity to companies from an investor’s perspective. Through examples involving 5 companies, it examines where demand emerges, from order intake to equipment and operating services.
This article explains why water shortages occur in rainy Japan, looking beyond total precipitation to regional and seasonal differences and the availability of water resources. Water only becomes usable after passing through the processes of evaporation, runoff, storage, distribution and consumption, making localized fluctuations important in addition to annual averages.
The 2026 edition of “The Current State of Japan’s Water Resources” shows that Japan’s annual precipitation is approximately twice the global average, while precipitation per capita is about one-third of the global average. It also shows that available water resources fluctuate significantly in drought years. The article cites the specific figure that approximately 323,000 people nationwide were affected by water supply disruptions in 2025.
The article divides water resources into the stages of “producing,” “reusing,” “monitoring” and “distributing,” then examines how corporate orders and earnings develop at each stage, from short-term news to long-term strategy. The 5 companies are presented not as stocks benefiting from water shortages, but as examples for comparing demand and competitive factors at each stage.
In the analysis of the 5 companies, Kurita Water Industries and Organo are closer to industrial water supply and wastewater treatment at factories, while METAWATER and Maezawa Industries play roles closer to the operation and equipment of water and sewage systems. Nippon Chutetsu Kokan is more closely involved in pipeline maintenance. Each company needs to be examined individually from the perspectives of municipal budgets, bidding and cost management, including how the timing of orders, contract structures and the weighting of recurring services affect earnings.