July 4, 2012

Japan Society of Civil Engineers
International Activities Center

IAC News No. 1
The Launch of IAC to Achieve a Great-Leap Forward Towards
Internationalizing JSCE
JSCE has worked with “Internationalization Strategy Committee” chaired by Prof. Shigeru Morichi (the 92ndJSCE President, Director of Policy Research Center, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies), which was
set up in response to growing demand for its global visibility and contribution in 2011. Based on thediscussions made by the Committee, JSCE has formed “International Affairs Center (IAC)” after dissolved theInternational Affairs Committee, and with the IAC under the leadership of Prof. Tamon Ueda, IAC SeniorDirector (JSCE Int’l Division Board of Director, Hokkaido Univ.) is making a start, aiming to achieve an“internationalized JSCE.”◆ JSCE is Launching IAC to enhance its function andcontribution to civil engineering progress and society
Civil engineering professionals, participating in academic, publicand private sectors, have been making contribution to thedevelopment of international activity and overseas business.
However, seeing the progress of globalization and the growth of
Asia’s rapidly developing economies, those professionals haverealized the weak international competitiveness of the country and
UEDA Tamon, Dr. Eng.
slow progress towards seamless communication between
Senior Director, IAC
engineering experts. It is certain that during the rapid economic(Hokkaido University)
growth period, those experts made significant achievements intheir own fields, but nowadays such conventional verticalsectionalism is too poor and insufficient to survive increasing
fierce competitions between countries. It is vital to create
strategies to win those competitions, and based on the strategies, to promote an effective
academia-industry-public cooperation/ collaboration, which can facilitate mutual knowledge, skills andinformation sharing.
Moreover, in order to respond those globalization-induced challenges, an organization which picks up a baton
and leads the civil engineering community should have been formed, but have not been done yet. JSCE, aprofessional society linking civil engineers in academia, government and industry which has been promotinginternational activities, is convinced that taking up a leadership is its rightful duty and responsibility as a public
interest incorporated association, and further strengthening the international activities is its priority as well.
First, what we need to do is to collect and visualize plenty of data and information accumulated by experts innarrow specializations and then to create a firm base to build up activities efficiently and systematically. Then,we will reaffirm our commitment and cooperation with that community and undertake activities as we can fulfill
a leadership role in tackling those challenges.

◆ IAC’s Operation
・IAC’s leadership role and project-focused, goal-oriented operation
Acting quickly and responsibly. Unlike the conventional committee-based activity planning, eachworking-group leader takes initiative, makes decisions and undertakes projects his/her working group. .
・Comprehensive approaches to the IAC operation, considering the needs of civil engineering community
Working in tandem with the civil engineering community. More human and financial resources and acommunication network will be needed to carry out projects and to achieve targets than ever. We will seek
for and work hard to obtain support and assistance not only within JSCE but also from the civil engineeringcommunity.
◆ Activity Targets

1) A long-term target
Aiming to enhance international activities qualitatively and quantitatively like the domestic activities havebeen done, we will work to obtain national and international recognition for the IAC as “a mecca” for civilengineering professionals.

2) A mid-term (3-5 years) target
a. Establishing a sustainable management system
・ Establishing financial stability with support and collaboration with JSCE peer organizations
・ Hiring a full-time Senior Director and staff members
・ Forming a tentative “Civil Engineering Forum on Globalization” to realize sustainable activities
b. Establishing a sustainable system to enable to build and maintain human and information networks and toprovide quality professional education/ training programs
・ Systematizing information collection and dissemination: translating into English and local languages,
publishing journals/ periodicals, communicating online
・ Networking among foreign students/ researchers working or have worked in Japan, and maintaining
and utilizing their networks to expand IAC’s activities
・ Developing practical professional education and training programs to enable engineers to preparing
for careers in a global civil engineering market.

3) FY 2012 Target
Major goal: scheduling and detailing IAC’s projects from a practical viewpoint
・ Selecting and appointing IAC Executive Council members and creating efficient management systems
・ Appointing group leaders and members, drawing and implement a project blueprint of each group・ Launching an information sharing system within JSCE in which every international activity undertaken
by sections and committees will be known.
・ Starting monthly “IAC News” and IAC HP
・ Selecting members and drafting a detailed bilateral communication strategy and plans for each target
country
Along with the above items,
・ Carrying out free discussions on creating the above forum in order to make it function and maintain aswe aim to without failure.
・ Then, acquiring an approval and cooperation from the peer organizations

◆ IAC Organization
Dept of International Affairs

Int’l Strategy Committee*

Developing & implementing strategies for int’l activities*Will start soon

IAC

Making and carrying out plans

Advisor: Takuro YAMAMOTO, Immediate-Past President【Office】
Sr. Director
Exec. Director
Directors

Information Networking G
Tamon
UEDA
Hirofumi
OHNISHI
Katsuji
HASHIBA
Katsuji
FUKUMOTOAsao
YAMAKAWA
Staff members【Activity Groups*】

Hiroyuki
YANAGAWA
YukikoSHIBUYA
HirokiOZAKI

Hokkaido Univ.

Leader: Prof. Satoru KOBAYAKAWA

Int’l Communication & Exchange G
Info. Networking Group
Leader
MLIT/Int’lStudent
Network Group Leader
ObayashiCorp./
ProfessionalDevelopment & Edu.
Program Group Leader
Nippon Koei. Co., Ltd.
Assistant to Sr. Director

Leader: Mr. Asao YAMAKAWA

Professional Development &Education Program G
Leader: Mr. Masaru NODA

Int’l Student Network G
Leader: Prof. Kohei NAGAI

Ad hoc working G

Yu
MIYAKOSHI
Part-time staff
members

Mainly group leaders

Task-based Committees
ACECC Committee (Chair: Dr. Kenichi Horikoshi, Taisei Corp.)
Committee on International Scientific Exchange Fund (ISEF) (Chair: Prof. Shinichi Hino, Kyushu Univ.)
Tentative Civil Engineering Forum on Globalization (Chair: TBA)

The Launch of IAC to Achieve a Great-Leap Forward Towards
Internationalizing JSCE
The challenges and solutions that we have identified to get on the right track. We would appreciate if you give
us advice and suggestions.
◆ Challenges: Creating the environment which allows IAC to do what it is trying to do andincreasing the visibitiiy of IAC/JSCE and its projects
Little noticed and recognized what projects and achievements have been made so far. No clear-cut
idea about “international activities done”even within JSCE, except disaster-response activities and theones done by Concrete Committee and some committees and disaster-response. They haveproduced steadily significants results, and been recongnized for their contribtuion to JSCE andcivil engineering progress accordingly.

Challenge ①: Integrating information“Lack of information integration and management system”→ “Lack of long-term, consistent project planning and management”⇒ Necessary to systematize information collection & sharing and facilitate to retrieve collected/ integrated
information so as to realize project planning and implementations with a broad and long-term strategic
perspective
Challenge ②: Continuity“Lack of long-term, consistent project planning and management”→ “Lack of continuity, recognition, and development of projects⇒ Necessary to systematize project implementation and management so as to minimize the negative
impact of any changes on a project, such as project team members, timeline and scope.
Challenge ③: Publicity“Lack of promotional activity”→ “Lack of recognition, understanding and support”⇒ In addition to the above two solutions, necessary to build a system to widely publicize activities/
projects at home and abroad.
st◆ Step-by-Step Solutions: 1 phase ( ~ Sept 2012)
Tackling the above challenges, and also strengthenning and maintining JSCE’s international
communication and collabroation
1) Building a strong, stable management
Revewing the conventional management, and forming a strong, stable mangement body to ensure
consistent and continuous operation
Setting up “Information Group” which will be in charge of focus on collecting, maintaining and sharing thedata/information of each working group
Then, based on the collected informaiton, creating project plans with a long-range, comprehensive
prespective of JSCE’s international activity with the International Strategy Committee
2) Executing promtioinal activities
Reviewing the conventional “Newsletter,” and creating a newsletter of which content will be interesting,timely and useful for readers
Upgrading and expanding the conventional communication means, channels and manners, such as JSCE
websites in Japanese and English, Facebook and Twitter.

3) Enhancing international exchange, communication and cooperation
Setting up International Communication and Exchange Group, and building sustainable international
communication and cooperation
Promoting the communication among Taiwan, Korea and Japan and strengthening their mutual ties
Building a foundation for communication and collaboration with Vietnam

IAC Staff’s Mumbling
As the IAC has started up, all of us are pulling their socks up and ready to begin serious work. We would like tomake the topics in the IAC News interesting, informative and enjoyable for you. In exploring a way to go, wemay sometimes get lost, or wander around. But, working with you, we will be able to get back on the right. So,
we ask your patience and understanding and do appreciate your warm support and advice. “A good work
environment, and a great job,” we believe that. We will make work fun.

【Comments and Questions】
Please let us know of any comments, ideas and suggestions you havefor improving this news.
We look forward to hearing from you.
JSCE IAC: iac-news@jsce.or.jp