IISEE Newsletter
September 30 2015
Number 125

In This Issue 23 ParticipantsCompleted the 55thOne-Year TrainingCourse Courtesy Call on theMLIT Minister
 GRIPS GraduationCeremony Address in Reply on
Behalf of All theParticipants

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23 Participants Completed the 55th One-Year
Training Course
By Mr. Takashi Yamashita, Head of IISEE Administration Division
The IISEE Closing Ceremony for the 2014-2015 Training Courses onSeismology, Earthquake Engineering and Tsunami Disaster Mitigation was heldat the BRI Hall from 10:30 to 11:30 on Wednesday, September 16.
The training course began at theUniversity of Tokyo in 1960. The Building
Research Institute took over the programfrom 1962 after the negotiation byministries concerned.
Almost 45 people including 23 training
participants
came
togetherandcelebrated the ceremony. As it was thejoint ceremony between JICA andBRI/IISEE, Mr. Katsuhiko HAGA, DirectorDr. Sakamoto, BRI Chief
General of JICA Tsukuba International
Executive
Center and Dr. Yuzo SAKAMOTO, BRI
Chief Executive made their congratulatory remarks first. After them, Dr.
Shoichi ANDO, Professor of National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies(GRIPS) extended his congratulations to the participants. (The GRIPS is thejoint partner of the master degree
program.)
Following the speeches, participantsreceived the graduation certificatesand diplomas.
Then three of the participants were
bestowed the Best Research Awards
by GRIPS and IISEE in celebration of
their high research capability andscientific level in their master theses.
They are Mr. Baasambat TSAGAAN
from Mongolia, Mr. Md. Jahidul Islam
KHAN from Bangladesh and Ms.
Teresa Jacqueline VERA SAN MARTIN
from Ecuador.

Awarding of CertificatesEarthquakes
The 2011 off the Pacificcoast of Tohoku
Earthquake
Reports of Recent
Earthquakes
Utsu Catalog
Earthquake Catalog

Closing Ceremony
Four participants won the IISEE Director’s Award which was established lastyear;

Call for Papers
IISEE Bulletin is now
accepting submissionsof papers for the seismology, earthqu ake
engineering, andtsunami. Developing
countries are targeted,but are not limited.
Your original papers
will be reviewed by theeditorial members andsome experts.
NO submission fee isneed.
Try to challenge!!

Ms. Baigalimaa GANBAT form Mongolia, Mr. Md. Shafiul ISLAM fromBangradesh, Ms. Nadia Eda MACAVILCA ROJAS from Peru and Ms. Kathrine
Anne Malabuyoc CAILING from Philippines. This award is confered to theparticipants in recognition of their accomplished the outstanding achievementof the IISEE training program.
As a closure of the ceremony, Mr. Urip Setiyono from Indonesia represented theentire participants and made a speech in response. (Plese see P4)

Courtesy Call on the MLIT Minister
By Mr. Takashi Yamashita, Head of IISEE Administration OfficeOn
September4,2014-2015
training
participants
paida
courtesy visit to Mr.
Akihiro Ohta, MinisterofLand,
Infrastructure,TransportandTourism. They met in
the Minister’s room oftheministry
headquarters.
Minister
Ohta
specializedincivilengineering in Kyoto
Minister Ota and the IISEE Participants
University. He learnedin earthquake engineering. With the ministry executives, he welcomed theparticipants and gave a speech with his research theme in his university days
and Japan’s efforts on the countermeasures against earthquake disasters
indicating the locations using the map of Japan.
He encouraged theparticipants to make efforts in the field of disaster mitigation in their respective
countries, and he mentioned his expectations that Japan and their countries
continue and enhance the colaboration.

Ms. Baigalimaa GANBAT from Mongolia
expressed her gratitude to the Minister andmade a speech on behalf of the participants.
Mr. Harish Chandra LAMICHHANE from Nepal,
Mr. Urip Setiyono from Indonesia and Mr. Md.
Shafiul ISLAM from Bangradesh introduced
their studies.

Enjoy, Now

By courtesy of the Minister Ohta, participants
spent almost half an hour in his office andlastly he shook hands with the participants oneby one.

Representative of theParticipants

GRIPS Graduation Ceremony
By Mr. Takashi Yamashita, Head of IISEE Administration Division

Contact Us

With the collaboration of the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies(GRIPS), IISEE participants are awarded the degrees of Master of Disaster
Management when they successfully complete one-year training course.

The IISEE Newsletter isintended to act as ago-between for IISEEand ex-participants.
We encourage you tocontribute a report andan article to this newsletter. Please let us
know your current
activities in yourcountries.
We also welcome yourco-workers and friends
to register our mailinglist.
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Conferment of Diploma on Master
DegreeConferment of Dean’s Award(Mr. Urip: second from the left)

Fortunately, all the 2014-2015 training course participants passed the GRIPS’
evaluation criteria and assessment.
On September 17, the Graduation
Ceremony was held in GRIPS Sokairou Hall. 176 doctoral and master program
graduates received their diplomas.
The number of the graduates of theDisaster Management Policy Programwas 38 including the IISEE participants.
Mr. Baasambat TSAGAAN from Mongolia
was awarded his diploma at first and hiscolleagues followed.
Also, Mr. Urip
Setiyono was awarded with the Dean’sAward, which is confered to a highachieving participant of each GRIP’s
program.
After the ceremony, graduates andpeople concerned came together thereception. Every participant looked tobe happy to have their diplomas onmaster degree. It was surely the happy
day and the last day for the IISEE
participants. Lastly, IISEE extend ourgreat appreciation to the people whosupport us. Thank you very much.

at GRIPS Graduation Ceremony

Address in Reply on Behalf of All the Participants
By Mr. Urip Setiyono from Indonesia
Dr. SAKAMOTO, President of Building Research Institute, Dr. YOKOI, Director of IISEE, Dr. ANDO,
Professor of the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies and former Director of IISEE, Mr. HAGA,Director General, JICA Tsukuba International Center, ladies and gentlemen, good morning.
I am honored to have this opportunity to speak in this ceremony on behalf of the participants and myfriends of the training courses Seismology, Earthquake Engineering and Tsunami Disaster Mitigation.
We are proud to get a chance to be a part of Japanese society although only a year. Here we get a very
valuable experience, not only in terms of science and technology but also the culture and character of
the Japanese people that are very typical. Character is the most important part in the development of
human resources in all fields. There is a proverb:“Watch your thoughts, they become words; watch your words, they become actions;watch your actions, they become habits; watch your habits, they become character;watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.” (Frank Outlaw)
Important characters possessed by the majority of Japanesesocieties are honesty, integrity, happiness and pride of theirwork. Feeling happy on the job will generate a lot of positive
traits: hard work, risk-taking, totality to finish everything,vigor, responsibility, high curiosity, diligence, tenaciousness,
sprits of never giving up, discipline, patience, etc.
Development and innovation of technologies can beaccomplished by human beings who have the characters as I
mentioned earlier. Those will be reflected on the completenessof their works. Completeness leads to good quality, and theMr. Urip Setiyono at Closing Ceremony
good quality is the only guarantee to survive and thrive.
Premium products come from high quality work. So it is not
surprising that products produced by the Japanese are always the primary choice in most countries inthe world.
Another thing that we can take a lesson from Japan is 'a natural disaster is not a barrier to innovate'.
The Great East Japan Earthquake, the Niigata Chuetsu Earthquake, and the Kobe Earthquake are theexample of major natural disasters that ever hit Japan. The catastrophic disasters would be a starting
point for the birth of new innovations. Research is like veins of Japan in innovating. Research has
become a culture for the Japanese people. So it is not surprising that young people, especially fromdeveloping countries compete to race in order to study in Japan.
Hopefully what we’ve got here in Japan can enrich our characters hence we could become ‘agents ofchange’ in our respective institutions, and will make our country better in the future.
Success in the true sense is the success of someone who is happy and proud of his work, where he wasable to create good quality products from his work. Innovation cannot be achieved without theperseverance, discipline, high spirit, and hard work, all of which can only happen if people were happy
at their work. Such as the following proverb: ‘Good work is never done in cold blood. Heat is needed toforge anything. Every great achievement is the story of flaming heart’ (President Harry Truman).
I wish all safe journeys. Please keep in touch to help each other in the future for the betterment of ourlives.
Finally, I would like to thank people in the Japan International Cooperation Agency, the Building
Research Institute, the International Institute of Seismology and Earthquake Engineering, the National
Graduate Institute for Policy Studies and every single person that contributed to this training course.
Thank you all.