Order values received by Japanese major construction companies in April-September 2014 increased by 4.7% from the same period of a year earlier to 7.3 trillion yen, said Japan Federation of Construction Contractors. The record-size value since 1998 reached more than 7 trillion for two years in a row. Despite private investment drop relating consumption tax increase this April, public works order jumped 50% induced by front-load spending of the budget. Domestic order valued 6.9 trillion yen, up 2.9% and overseas order hiked 43.5% to 443.7 billion yen. (2014/10/27)