Those countries do not respect the rights of citizens (Malaysia & China) in the same way. China doesn't give people in the way of infrastructure any rights beyond very basic compensation. In this country compensation is above property value and it takes years to work through the planning process. A huge chunk of the cost of projects is tunneling where other countries would build above ground and to hell with the view. Another big cost is land as we have a restrictive planning system that increases prices along with lax lending. Our planning system is too slow but it is better than trampling over people's lives like occurs in China.

That hole in Japan was caused by something other than a sewer collapsing. It is too big to be that. May well be an easier fix despite being larger. I reckon a hole in Oxford Circus would get fixed a lot quicker than the one in Perry Vale in any case.