IAC News

Japan Society of Civil Engineers  International Activities Center April 1, 2014 IAC News No.18 

 

Report on the International Symposium Series No. 1.

Professional Development and Education Program Group held International Symposium Series No. 1: International Competitiveness of Construction Industry and Business Strategy on February 12.  The Group planned this symposium series as one of its activities which focused on strengthening globally-capable human resources, assisting the Japanese construction industry to expand its business overseas, and increasing its international competitiveness. The Group invited speakers from the US and Japanese companies which successful were doing business in Japan and overseas respectively and listened to their discussion with 78 attendees from academia, industry, and public sectors.

The Symposium No. 1 welcomed Mr. Takehiko Miyazaki Vice President, Country Manager Japan, Overseas Bechtel Incorporated as a speaker.  Mr. Miyazaki discussed future business strategies for internationalization with the examples of European and American firms which were expanding into overseas markets, making comparisons with Japanese firms, and the skills, attributes and abilities needed for Japanese engineers.  His presentation was followed by a lively question-and-answer session.

In Part 2, Mr. Takashi Matsuoka, Associate Executive Officer, General Manager of Engineering Division, JGC Corporation delivered a speech as a representative of a Japanese firm which was expanding its business globally. He discussed the path that the firm had taken in its globalization process responding to changes in society over time, and how it had set a goal and dealt with the challenges posed by those changes, using specific examples. The discussion attracted to the audience many of who worked with the companies pursuing internationalization for their operations.
 

Mr.Miyazaki delivers a speech.

Mr. Matsuoka talks to the audience.

This symposium was the first in a series of three symposia. The second symposium will be held on Monday, March 12, having 2 invited speakers. Mr. Nawal K. Prinja of AMEC Co. and Mr. Hideki Sakaeda of AECOM, and the third one on Monday, April 22. The Group hope that this symposium series will give useful clues the Japanese firms who are planning to the Int’l Education Group will carry out these activities to help members of Japanese companies attempting to internationalize their business operations.
Thank you very much.

Philippines Section Report “The Forum on Structural Resilience to Earthquakes and Typhoons through Sustainable Civil Engineering”

JSCE IAC Philippines Section co-organized a forum with College of Engineering (COE) of University of the Philippines (UP) and the Philippine Institute of Civil Engineers (PICE) after the two major disasters in the Philippines on 30th January 2014. The forum started with the opening remarks by the dean of COE of UP and the head of Institute of Civil Engineering (ICE) of UP, followed by the messages from the president of PICE and the president of JSCE. They expressed their deep condolences and sympathies to the victims of the disasters, as well as their determination to strengthen international collaboration for the disaster management.

The forum consisted of two parts, the earthquake session and the typhoon session. From JSCE, two interesting surveys were reported in this forum. One is "Reconnaissance of Highway Bridge Damages due to the 2013 Bohol Earthquake in the Philippines" by Mr. Tsukuda, a JICA expert dispatched from MLIT to DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highway) in the earthquake session. Mr. Tsukuda reported the reconnaissance of the bridge damages by the earthquake in Bohol, and, based on the survey, suggested some recommendations for seismic designs. In this session, PHIVOLCS (Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology), ICE of UP and PICE/ASEP (Association of Structural Engineers of the Philippines) also presented. They investigated the damages by the earthquake and suggested policy recommendations for future earthquake preparation.

The typhoon session focused on the serious damages by the typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda. As the other report from JSCE, Dr. Yasuda of Kyoto University, a member of the joint team of PICE and JSCE for the assessment of the damage of the typhoon, presented "Report of JSCE-PICE Joint Survey on the Storm Surge Disaster caused by Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda". This was a valuable assessment report on the storm surge damages. NOAH (The Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards), PAGASA (Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration), PICE and ICE of UP also presented in the session. These presentations reported their observations of the typhoons and their analyses of the serious damages mainly in the Leyte Island.

More than one hundred people participated in this forum, and more than twenty of them were the Japanese engineers working in the Philippines. There were active discussions including the audiences. The forum ended with the remarks by Dr. Sigua, the head of the JSCE Philippines section.

【JSCE Int’l Philippine Group & JSCE Philippines section】
 

Welcome Remarks by the Dean of COE-UP

Mr. Tsukuda delivers a presentation.

 

Activities of Vietnam Section

JSCE Vietnam Section is the latest addition to the International Section, which was established in 2009. I have worked for the Section since its launch and noticed a few things that should be addressed. JSCE disseminates unique, useful and valuable information to civil engineering professionals in and outside the country, and does in English on a much smaller scale. Accordingly, the professional know-how that JSCE has accumulated is not recognized widely enough to interest overseas professionals to use them in their practices. JSCE, being well aware what issues they have, has opened the IAC with the aim of strengthening its international communication and activity. Since counting the cooperation with Vietnam as one major activity, the IAC has set up Vietnam Group with the leader Dr. Phan Huu Duy Quoc (Shimiz Corp.). Then, the Vietnam Group has been carrying out several joint activities with its counterparts in Vietnam.

Moreover, Center for Promoting Japan-Vietnam Civil Engineers Collaboration (CJV) opened within National University of Civil Engineers (NUCE) in Hanoi in November 2013, thanks to Dr. Quoc and Dr. Nguyen Hoang Giang of NUCE. The CJV has a library corner and meeting space so that people would use it to study Japanese civil engineering technology, have meetings, and meet new friends and colleagues. The library corner features the 47 civil engineering references donated by the JSCE HQ. It stands out as a technical library in Vietnam where not many civil engineering references are available. It is open to not only civil engineering professionals, but also the public. The library corner will be a valuable resource in the country, and more books will be required.

There are many local engineers who have studied in Japan and also many Japanese engineers working in Vietnam. I am convinced that building communication between Vietnam and Japanese engineers is a vital component of smoothly operating business. I do hope that the Section liaises between the two parties, assists them to expand their network. Please contact the Section when you come to Vietnam. We look forward to working with you.

【Contact】
JSCE Vietnam Section: Yosui SEKI (ALMEC Corporation), email: seki@almec.co.jp
Center for Promoting Japan-Vietnam Civil Engineers Collaboration (CJV):
Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong
Room 110, A1 Building No.55, Giai Phong Street, Hanoi, Vietnam
Email: Hường Nguyễn Thị <huongnt1@nuce.edu.vn>
Tel: +84.4.3.8691302; +84.4.3.8699403, Fax: +84.4.3.8691684

 

IAC Current News (by Kotaro Hashimoto the 101st JSCE President)
◆Japan and Turkey Communication and Technical Exchange

“Special Symposium on Earthquake Engineering” to commemorate the retirement of Prof. Masanori Hamada, who is the 94th JSCE President, of Waseda University was held last month.  Emeritus Professor Zeki Hasgur of Istanbul Technical University, who is JSCE’s Turkey Section President, delivered the speech “Cooperation History in Earthquake Engineering between Turkey and Japan” in that special symposium.

Looking back at the history of Turkey and Japan relations, we notice that the two countries experienced westernization during the same period. Under the rule of Sultan Abdülmecid I series of reforms were undertaken in the Ottoman Empire to modernize society in Turkey in 1839 (The Ottoman Imperial Edict of Reorganization). Meiji Restoration began the westernization of Japan in 1868. The relations between these two countries began with the two memorable events: one was the visit of Prince Komatsu to Istanbul on a Japanese warship in 1889. The other was the frigate Ertuğrul shipwreck on her returning voyage, which resulted in the loss of crew members including Admiral Ali Osman Pasha. A rescue operation was conducted with the cooperative efforts between the two countries.

Then, as for Turkey’s seismic researches, Istanbul Technical University Seismology Institute invited a Japanese leading engineer in 1951. Since then, the school has had several visiting professors from Japan such as Prof. Takahiro Hagiwara and Prof. Tsuneji Rikitake. Prof. Keizaburo Kubo the JSCE 74th President is one of them.

Recent technical cooperation between the two countries is seen in the major projects like the 2nd Bosporus Bridge (Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge) project completed in 1988, the Immersed Tube Tunnel in Bosporus project which opened for the public last year, and an ongoing Izmit Bay Suspension Bridge project.

Turkey and Japan are earthquake-prone countries, and thus both need to enhance earthquake disaster mitigation measures and improve disaster-resilient infrastructures at the same time. Sharing the common challenge, they will further improve communication and technical exchange in the civil engineering field.

The operation of JSCE Turkey Section depends heavily on  Emeritus Professor Hasgur the president. There is the Turkey Group in the IAC which is in charge of Japan-Turkey communication, and more support to the Group and the Section is expected in order to strengthen the tie between the two parties and then to enhance the communication between two countries. That may be achieved through the channel between the Prof. Hamada and Emeritus Professor Hasgur who have a long lasting friendship and also Prof. Aydan Omer’ of Ryukyu University research activities with local engineers who is from Turkey.

The IAC is holding World-Class Japanese Civil Engineers Symposium Series No. 1 “An Undersea Rail Tunnel under the Bosporus Strait, connecting between Asia and Europe” on April 3rd. This timely topic will attract a large number of attendees. Moreover, the event hopefully will encourage International Cooperation and Collaboration subgroups to plan unique and interesting projects.
Thank you very much.

 

What's Happening

●2014/4/3・・・・・Contract BC-1: Marmaray Project Symposium ( JSCE HQ, Tokyo)
●2014/4/22・・・・・International Symposium Series No. 3: “(tentative) Diversification Strategy of Foreign Construction Companies” 　Venue：JSCE HQ, Tokyo
●2014/5/29-30・・・・・・59th ECCE General Meeting & ECCE Conference 　Venue：Tbilisi, Georgia
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　（http://www.ecceengineers.eu/）
●2014/5/31・・・・・Joint Company Information Session in Civil Engineering for International Students    ( JSCE HQ, Tokyo)
 

Updates

●The summary of feature articles in the JSCE Magazine is available on the JSCE website.
http://www.jsce-int.org/pub/magazine
●Concrete Committee International Newsletter No. 36
http://www.jsce.or.jp/committee/concrete/e/newsletter/Newsletter.htm
 

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Y's  Murmuring

JSCE held another 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake commemorative symposium on March 3 this year.  I remembered that the Iwate Prefectural Office had a 9-year recovery and reconstruction plan and would make their best effort to rebuild the towns wrecked by the earthquake. During the past three years, people have been losing interest and volunteerism has been falling steadily. They want to make themselves believe that recovery and rebuilding works are making good progress in the Tohoku area, or don’t want to see little progress have been made, or can’t think anything but finding the ways to be less affected by the consumption tax increase. How much progress Iwate has made towards recovery and reconstruction works?