2019. 1. 9Japan Society of Civil Engineers
International Activities Center

IAC News No.75
New Year’s Greetings

When the Pacific War ended, the people of Japan, whether they liked it or not,accepted the fact that they had lost the war. However, they did not become servile
just because they were the citizens of a defeated country. They decided and were
motivated to rebuild the cities that had been reduced to ashes and to establish an
affluent society for the future.
On a personal note, I was born in 1953, which means our generation did not

Kiyoshi Kobayashi
106th JSCE President

experience the war. It may surprise you, but I still remember the remarks made by
the principal at the entrance ceremony of my elementary school, which made me quiver. He said something like,“Did you know that Japan was once occupied by foreign countries? People of my generation lived through hardtimes during the war, which Japan lost and therefore was occupied by foreign countries. You are the first children
to be born after the liberation of Japan. I would like you to be strong and study hard in order to build a brandnew Japan.”In 1952, the Treaty of Peace with Japan became law and the country thus gained its independence. Comparedwith our parents’ generation, I wonder how affluent Japan has actually become. However, it seems that the eraof pursuing material affluence has ended. The important points today are: “What is a vibrant life?” and “What isa good society?” These concepts need not be based on a single scenario; it does not matter how many scenarios
you have. The important thing is to create a vision, and this is what the Japan Society of Civil Engineers (JSCE)
does. If people start to support you, they will eventually understand the infrastructure required for realizing yourvision. Be an innovator who designs the new society. This is my message to you.
I wish you a happy new year, and hope that is a happy and rewarding one.

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The 2nd JSCE-CCES Joint Symposium
The 2nd JSCE-CCES Joint Symposium was heldat Shanghai Tongji University, from 25th to 28th
October 2018. To strength the cooperation of
CCES (China Civil Engineering Society) and
JSCE, this symposium was decided to continually
hosted in Japan and China by the JSCE President
Masahiko Isobe and Vice Chairman Yongsheng Li
of CCES in the ceremonial event of the Japan
Society of Civil Engineers in 2014. After
preparations, the 1st symposium was held inTokyo in October 2016. At that time, it was agreed

Photo 1 The 2nd JSCE-CCES Joint Symposium inTongji University

to organize a symposium between Japan and
China each time with the same theme, this was the second time.
At the beginning, Professor Gu Xianglin, also the Vice President of Tongji University, Vice Chairman of CCES,
Dr. Xu a Chief Bridge Designer, Professor Iwaki from Nihon University, Dr. Konishi from JR East gave theKeynote Lectures about the state of art on maintenance management of civil engineering structures andconstruction design. After that, both parallel sessions were held in tunnel and bridge structures respectively.
In the sessions on tunnel construction technology and maintenance management technology, there were 21
presentations on both sides in two days. Companying with fast development of infrastructures in China,
numerous large-scale tunnel drilling were introduced. And advances in various excavation techniques suitablefor complicated geological conditions were impressive.
On the other hand, although the number of announcements on the Japanese side is few, it was obvious that the
point of view focused on maintenance. There is no doubt that it was a presentation of interest to each other andit can be said that it was a useful exchange.
In addition, a visiting tour on the construction site of the city underground expressway network in Shanghai wasconducted. This network is in the shape of kanji 'well' (double cross) under Shanghai city. What we visited is theupper and side tracks in the form of 'Well', which is called 'North Cross Path'.
To construct this tunnel in diameter of 15.8 meters,
AI based mud shield drilling technology was used.
The top of the section and the inside have 3 lanes
each, while the lower part is a PC joint groove.
Although the shield drilling technology itself was
great, the quality of the PC precast pipe was not sogood, it is difficult to feel it as manufactured in goodquality. The picture after the tour is shown in the
Photo 2.

Photo 2 After the Tunnel Construction Tour2

In the bridge sessions, together with 37 papers, 15 from Japan and 22 from China, have been presented. From
the Chinese side, introduction of Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge which was opened on October 24 during
this symposium, rapid construction, monitoring of traffic load and analysis of change in diameter was presented.
From the Japanese side, reports were focused on topics such as structural seismic damage investigation in
Kumamoto earthquake.
In the afternoon of the second day, the construction
site of the Shanghai-Nantong Yangtze River Bridgeconnecting between Shanghai and Nantong City, the
Hu-Tong Bridge, was visited by the members
interesting in bridges. The main part of this projectis a cable-stayed bridge with main span of 1092
meters, which is very rare for railway bridges. After
arrived at the dock by bus, participants changed to aferry and arrived the construction part and climbed
up to the main girder under construction of 332
meters high, where the scene of making the twolayer main girder of the road and the railroad can be

Photo 3 On a 332-meter-high Construction Site of Hu-Tong
Bridgeseen.
Participants from Japan, both the tunnel bridge
groups, also visited the legendary fellow Huangshan
distant from Shanghai on 27th and 28th. Tongji
University's graduate students also participated.
Based on the comment from the participants thisvisiting is really a precious experience andunforgettable after climbing this high mountain
together. (Photo taken at the top of Huangshan isshown in Photo 4)
Finally, the 3rd Joint Symposium will be held in2020 in Tokyo, and the topic would be expanded

Photo 4 On the Top of Huangshan

from tunnels and bridges to river and port
engineering.
【Reported by Ho Cho, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Ji Dang, Yoshiaki Okui, Saitama University 】

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The Committee on Pavement Engineering“The 8th JAPAN/CHINA Workshop on Pavement Technologies”
The Committee on Pavement Engineering, JSCE held the 8th JAPAN / CHINA Workshop on Pavement
Technologies on Thursday, November 29 and Friday, November 30, 2018.
Japan and China are actively engaged in various research activities on pavement technologies. However, since
our mother tongues are not English, we are not making a sufficient number of reports on our findings available
to other countries. That is why we thought that discussing our findings in our respective mother tongues would
help solve the technical problems of the pavement technologies of both countries. The first JAPAN / CHINA
Workshop on Pavement Technologies was held in 2001 in Shanghai, China. This year marks the 8th workshop
since its establishment.
WorkshopYear and Month

Country and City

1st

November 2001

Shanghai, China

2nd

November 2003

Tokyo, Japan

3rd

November 2005

Nanjing, China

4th

July 2007

Sapporo, Japan

5th

September 2009

Xian, China

6th

September 2011

Naha, Japan

7th

August 2013

Harbin, China

8th

November 2018

Osaka, Japan

Thirty participants from Japan and 24 from China participated in the workshop, and 13 papers from Japan and
29 from China were submitted. Among them, because of the tight schedule, presentations on nine papers fromJapan and seven from China were made. On the first day, Professor Tatsuo Nishizawa of the National Instituteof Technology, Ishikawa College (Chair of the Committee on Pavement Engineering, JSCE) from Japan andProfessor Xiaoming Huang of Southeast University from China gave keynote lectures. Each presentation wasmade in the mother tongue (Japanese or Chinese) of the presenter with consecutive interpretation, leading todeeper discussions.
The next workshop is to be held in Changsha, China in 2020.

【Reported by Yukitomo Tubokawa, The Committee on Pavement Engineering】
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-Internationalization of Japanese Universities-

Teaching International Students at Yokohama National
University Graduate School, Center of Innovation,
Department of Civil Engineering
When you think of Yokohama, there is a strong, faithful association of its being a “portcity” or an “international city.” The university has also placed great importance on the
education of international students and international education programs. For
example, since the inception of the Economics and Management schools, as the name“Department of International Social Sciences” suggests, there is a long history ofteaching and research championing the international theme at the departmental level.
Though almost 40 years have passed since the Department of Civil Engineeringcelebrated its first graduating class in 1982, its history is not very long relative to other Hitoshi Yamada
Yokohama National

civil engineering departments around Tokyo. However, if we look at the history of the University
special program that gives preferential admission and government scholarships tointernational students, the university has the second longest hisotry next to the University of Tokyo, whch has
produced 237 graduates since the introduction of the program in 1988. The details can be viewed in theuniversity’s public data.
The main features of teaching international students through the Department of Civil Engineering at theuniversity can be summarized as follows:
1) All teaching and research guidance activities are carried out in English. Only recently has English teaching
been touted as a requirement for internationalization, but from the beginning, that was a measure put in place toaid international students in understand and communicating during learning and doing research activities tolower barriers associated with studying in Japan. Given the precedents, considerations were also given to ensurethat the quality of teaching in Japanese for regular students did not decline.
2) At the beginning of the program, enrollment was limited to students from Official Development Assistance(ODA) recipient countries. This excluded the students from East Asian and developed countries who would
normally make up the majority. As a result, many returned home after graduation-including those in 3)-to takea teahing career, creating a ripple effect of inviting excellent second- and third-generation students whom theytaught to apply for the program.
3) Admissions of international students were focused on those studying in doctoral courses. It was possible toadmit many international students to master’s programs, but this was not necessarily a good policy from ateaching quality perspective, as many Japanese students also progressed into master’s programs. By targetingthe best students from top tier universities globally who wished to study in doctoral courses, we employed thestrategy of quality over quantity. Establishing good relationships with candidates from top overseas universities
was paramount; therefore, our teaching staffs visited universities in person many times.
4) Since the inception of the program, supplementary Japanese classes and mental care for adapting to theJapanese way of life have been made available to international students using the teaching budget. We understand5

that teaching staffs and faculties cannot always provide sufficient support to the international students to adjust
to life in Japan. Therefore, we continue to provide classes to help them feel more at home.
The above features of the university’s Department of Civil Engineering relate to the preferential admissions
program and government scholarships for international students by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports,
Science and Technology. However, because of changes in governmental policies, governmental support for the
program is changing from simply upgrading technologies in target countries to encompassing a wider range ofenrollment and learning support programs. For example, a double-degree program is a given and programs
supporting teaching staffs from universities in developing countries in their pursuit of doctoral degrees andvarious channels through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the World Bank’s
Infrastructure Management Program (IMP) are components of this multifaceted program expansion. The numberof international students in the Civil Engineering doctoral program alone is now reaching a capacity of the entire
department, which includes Architecture and Humanities students. Therefore, securing resources for teachinglaboratories needed to maintain the teaching and research standards is currently a major issue.

【Reported by Hitoshi Yamada, Yokohama National University】- Overseas Project Hoaac Science and Technology City Infrastructure Construction Work
1. Introduction
Vietnam, located in the eastern part of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia, is asocialist republic with an area of 330,000 km2 and a population of 93.7 million (as of2017). Since 2000, when the Doi Moi policies started to take hold, the country has posted
an average annual GDP growth of 6 to 7%, one of the highest among ASEAN countries
in recent years.
2. Background

Tokuyuki Matsuya

Vietnam’s economic growth is supported by industrial products manufactured in each TAISEI Corp.
industrial complex, as well as abundant agricultural products, fisheries, and mineral products. It is estimated that
60% of the export value of industry in Vietnam is produced by more than 300 industrial complexes and export
processing zones throughout the country.
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The government of Vietnam aims to grow the country into a world-class industrial powerhouse with thefollowing national goals: to develop information technology (IT) infrastructure, to develop IT engineers, topromote the use of IT in society and the economy overall, and to strengthen the IT industry. The Hoa Lac Scienceand Technology City Development Project was proposed to rapidly achieve the goal of increasing the share ofhigh-tech products to more than 45% of GDP.
3. Hoa Lac Hi-tech Park (HHTP)
Hoa Lac Hi-tech Park (HHTP) waMasMMs planned to be constructed in the Hoa Lac area located approximately
30 km west of Hanoi, the capital city. It is accessible, taking just 30 minutes from Hanoi and 45 minutes fromNoi Bai International Airport by car. Hoa Lac Science and Technology City Development Project has been
supported by the Japanese government since 2006. Under this project, the HHTP has been developed into a hub
for collaboration between business and academia taking a previous case in Japan as an example.

Present construction area

Education and Training Zone
Research and Development Area
5.5 kmService Zone
Hi-Tech Industrial Park
Office and Housing

Fig.1 Overall Plan, Bird’s-eye view*Fig.2 Master Plan of Land use*

*Cited from official brochure of HHTP. The author added the names of zones and others.

Partially opened in 2008. Seventy-two companies, four of which are Japanese ones, have decided to move in asof 2018. In addition to the IT universities that have been opened, the HHTP is planning to invite sciencetechnology universities. HHTP aims to be a city with 100,000 students by 2050.
4. Details of Construction and Current StateAs part of the new construction plan, construction orders for some projects were issued in October 2015. Amongthem, this is an infrastructure project that includes the construction of roads, bridges, water and sewage facilities,
and telecommunication facilities.
Hoa Lac Science and Technology City Development Project Package "CP1A: Major Infrastructure
Development" was ordered by Hoa Lac Hi-Tech Park Management Board as a Japanese ODA project. The joint
venture among Taisei Corporation and Vinaconex Construction & Import-Export J.S.C. and Truong Son
Construction Corporation is responsible for construction, which will run for 37 months from October 2015 to
October 2018. In the premises of 1,036 ha, those three companies will share the construction of roads(construction of new roads and improvement of existing roads, with a total length of 36 km), five bridges, piping
systems (rainwater, drainage, and water and sewage system, with a total length of 144 km), telecommunication
system (total length of 115 km), electricity distribution room, sewage pumping room, etc.
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Preparations for commissioning the infrastructure construction are underway. Meanwhile, connections withexternal infrastructure are taking time; accordingly, the project including this construction work is to becompleted by the end of next year.

Photo 2 New bridge that goes across the reservoir

Photo 1 Construction of new road

5. Conclusion
We are grateful for and value the support from the client and all who are involved in the construction, and would
like to complete the construction while putting safety before everything else. We hope that this project willcontribute to the sophistication of industry in Vietnam and support the country to develop to a world-classindustrial country, and that the relationship between Vietnam and Japan will develop and strengthen further.
【Reported by Shigeaki Tanaka, Tokuyuki Matsuya, Kosuke Nagashima, TAISEI CORPORATION】【Alumni of DOBOKU Series】“River Restoration Project: Malaysia and Japan Perspectives”
Mohd Shalahuddin Adnan
Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
University Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia
I’ve experienced amazing time doing my Doctoral Degree in Japan, and honestly it
was one of the most memorable moments in my life. I came to Japan in October 2008
after finishing my Masters Degree from Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia. I wassponsored by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to pursue my study at
Kyushu University in the field of River Engineering. I would like to thank JICA forthe sponsorship as it helps to make my dream comes true.

During my stay, I’m not

only learned about the advanced technology and knowledge in my field but also, I’ve
learned about Japanese culture, society and language. One of the values in Japanese Mohd Shalahuddin Adnan(University Tun Hussein Onn

cultures that I remember the most is on punctuality and I tried my best to practice Malaysia)
this culture in my daily life activities.

8River Restoration Practise in Malaysia and Japan
There are big differences between river restoration
practices conducted in Malaysia and Japan on how tocarry out the river restoration projects. Based on myobservation, the gaps can be concluded in term offunctionally, participation from various stakeholders,determination, cost and monitoring works after the
project completed.

River restoration project can be

carried out based from a range of different approaches.
Many restoration projects attempt to replicate naturalriver processes and features such as river flow, flow

Photo 1 Field Trip at Kanmon Bridge

depth, river morphology, meanders, pool and riffles.
Another common restoration approach is to remove human hydraulic structure such as sluice gate, weirs anddams to improve continuity and connectivity between different habitats along a river’s course.
When I started my study, my PhD supervisor had involved me with the real river restoration project which has
been conducted in the Kamisaigou River and Azame-nose wetland which are located at the Fukutsu City andKaratasu City respectively. Since it has been only a month in Japan, I couldn’t really understand the discussion
which was carried out in Japanese. However, after joining Japanese class, I’ve improved my Japanese and beable to understand the discussion topic in the next following meeting and symposium.

In the past, Kamisaigou

River has been canalized with concrete revetments and the morphology has changed from meander river tostraight river which resulted in reduction of its biological function. Thus, in 2007, Fukutsu City Government has
initiated a restoration program to improve the environmental quality of the river. While for Azame-nose wetland,
this wetland is totally a new wetland that specially designs to reduce the magnitude of flood by providing a spacefor river to expand their floodplain during high flow. Before these restoration projects carried out, the extensive
surveys and community engagement have been performed to make sure the project can successfully achieve theobjective of the project. The final decision will be made after several series of workshops and symposiums which
involved many stakeholders that not only dominated by the government agencies but also NGO’s and local
community.
Meanwhile back in Malaysia, the restoration project that was carried out by the government normally with low
participation from the local community. Based on this practice, sometimes the local community aren’t aware
about the project thus there is no self-belonging to the environment that resulted to low awareness on river care.
However, in these day many agencies and NGOs have play their role to educate the community by engaging
them with the current and future project in their surrounding and adjacent perimeters to make sure the riverrestoration project can be sustained for last.
Bridging Malaysia and Japan through Research Activities
During my study, I was involved and awarded with special grant under Global Center of Excellence (GCOE)
program of Kyushu University, and I also worked as an International Researcher on the ecological conservation
project especially in Malaysia. I participated in the development of research network with the universities, NGO(Global Environment Centre), governmental organizations (Freshwater Research Centre) inside Malaysia and9other Countries. Series of workshop and symposium were conducted in order to share the findings. The chances
to work with special group known as Asian Pacific Biodiversity Observation Network (APBON) has given me
a special opportunity to work with my lab mate after graduated from my PhD. After coming back from Japan,
we started to collect and develop freshwater fish
database that could be made as a reference for future
works. My lab mates have travelled several times to
Malaysia to perform sampling activities and we’vevisited several rivers and streams from natural topolluted rivers to record, create and update biodiversity
database. Moreover, the collaboration between alumni
from different countries such as Indonesia, Cambodia,
Laos and Vietnam through conferences and research
visit have expanded research network and strengthen the

Photo 2 With Teacher and Laboratory Colleagues

relationship among these countries.
Current River Ecosystem in Malaysia and Way Forward
Restoring the river ecosystem is a big challenge to the governments and consultants to design the best restoration
project. By referring to several successful stories on river restoration and rehabilitation projects from Japan,
Korea, Taiwan, United Kingdom and United State; the Malaysia government is inspired to initiate urban river
rehabilitation program in Malaysia. Since the last decade, many river restoration projects were carried out inorder to improve the river ecosystem in Malaysia. Many initiatives have been carried out such as love our river
campaign, river adoption, public awareness and education, river watch programme, river expedition, and many
more. Hopefully, by performing these activities, the river environment in Malaysia will be further enhanced andwe can see many rivers in Malaysia are back to serve their original function as a habitat for flora and fauna andwealth creation.

《Column》Yukihiro Shimatani, School of Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering Kyushu University, Professor
Mr. Shalahuddin’s doctoral dissertation was a study on the evaluation and indexing of ecosystemsoundness for the Pahang River. It was a difficult research theme, he had to cooperate with a
Malaysian institute to investigate fish once every two months, and to do the analysis afterwards. Manykinds of insect-eating fish live in that river, so the investigation results were quite interesting. I also
participated in the survey of the Pahang River once, it was really memorable experience to fish in a
tropical natural river and meet with his family. I read the article he wrote this time, it is such a pleasure
to know his experience and progress in research.
※Alumni of DOBOKU Series is in collaboration with Editorial Committee of JSCE Magazine.

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Updates◆CECAR8 Online Registration (Early Bird: June 1, 2018 – Jan 31, 2019)http://www.cecar8.jp/◆The International Infrastructure Archives– A Compilation of Japan’s Greatest Projects in Transfer of Civil Engineering Technology in Service –http://www.jsce.or.jp/e/archive/◆Asian Civil Engineering Coordinating Council (ACECC) International Newsletter
http://www.acecc-world.org/newsletter.html◆IAC “News Pick Up!!” on the JSCE Japanese website
http://committees.jsce.or.jp/kokusai/node/118◆Summary of featured articles in JSCE Magazine Vol. 104, No.1 January 2019http://www.jsce-int.org/pub/magazine◆Journal of JSCE
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