How Japan built the world's first 3D-printed train station in 6 hours

This 3D printed train station in Japan only took six hours to install

Areida is a quiet coastal town in Japan's Wakayama Prefecture. It's home to around 25,000 people, and until recently, it was most famous for its succulent

mikan oranges. But lately, Areida's only train station, Hatsushima, stole the spotlight for becoming

the world's first 3D printed railway station. The project was commissioned by the West Japan Railway Company and completed by Serendix

which is a Japanese 3D printing firm that usually constructs affordable futuristic homes

It was tasked with creating a 3D printed shelter to replace Hatsushima's old wooden construction

which was built shortly after World War II and had served the community for 75 years

And though the new station is smaller than the one it replaced, measuring just under 100 square feet

Serendix claims that the 3D printed shelter has saved both time and resources

We still don't know how much time and resources, as the company has yet to release data about their efficiency and costs

What we do know is that the construction process was incredibly fast

In a factory about 500 miles from Hatsushima, Serendix printed four parts needed to build the station's shelter

These parts were reinforced with concrete for seven days, and once ready, were transported on trucks to the station, where a team assembled the pieces in a span of a few hours

To avoid service disruption the construction took place between the departure of the last night train and the arrival of the first service of the day at 5 a This new shelter looks pretty minimal with the exception of two ornaments carved on the back and the side

an engraving of Arida's famous milk and orange slice, and one of the scabbard fish, also local to the area

The rather sterile-looking 3D-printed construction may not be as picturesque as its 75-year-old wooden predecessor

but it needs minimal maintenance, something Japan is increasingly thinking about in light of increasing worker shortages and rapid population decline

In 2024, Japan registered a population fall for the 14th time in a row

losing 898,000 people from the previous year. This marked Japan's largest population drop

since the government started gathering data in 1950. Birth rates are way below replacement levels

meaning more people die each year than are born, and Japan currently has the oldest population in the world

With these rates, the people in retirement age will soon outnumber the workforce. So solutions like Hatsushima, which minimize the number of staff needed to build and look after the train station

could help address these staff shortages if applied on a larger scale

Population decline is a long and complex topic worthy of its own video

And while solving it would require a complete rethinking of our current economic systems

which make it virtually impossible for most people who want to have children to do so

So there's no denying that many industries are set for worker shortages

So what do you think? Should we rely on automation to fix those problems, or is there a different way

Let us know in the comments, and if you want to learn more about the future of construction tech

head over to Mashable.com