IISEE Newsletter
Apr 28 2014
Number 108

In This Issue• Latin American E. E.
Course• Reports on Kansai
Study Trip
• Lunch under the
Cherry Blossoms• Letter from ExParticipant• Snapshots of Kansai
Study Trip

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International Institute of Seismology and Earthquake Engineering BRI Japan
1 Tachihara Tsukuba Japan 305-0802

tel+81-29-879-0678 facsim+81-29-864-6777

Latin American Earthquake Engineering Course
By Dr. Toshiaki Yokoi & Mr. Mizuo Inukai of IISEELatin America, one of the earthquake prone regions, has been severely
devastated by strong jolting many times during its history, lagging behind indissemination of earthquake resistant structural technology.
Building Research Institute of Japan has been collaborating on the JICA
technical cooperation projects and carring out the field of earthquake
engineering, in Mexico, Peru, Chile, El Salvador, Nicaragua, etc. Furthermore,
many training participants from other Latin American countries have studied inIISEE, too.
However, due to the Japanese ODA (Official Development Assistance) budget
policy after the Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster, the emphasis lies on
capacity building rather than conventional technical cooperation projects inLatin American countries. Considering these circumstancies and their mothertongue in Latin America, IISEE/BRI has decided to propose to JICA for a new
short period training course on earthquake engineering. The training will be
conducted in Spanish. JICA approved the proposal and it will be held in thiscoming June and July.
We are very glad for welcoming 14 participants from 4 countries this year.
Next year we are anticipating having more applications including othercountries in Latin America.

Reports on Kansai Study Trip

(1)Mr. Faouzi Gherboudj (Algeria, Seismology Course )In this study trip, we had a great opportunity to visit Kansai region in thewestern part of Japan. Our itinerary includes three main cities: Osaka, Kobeand Kyoto.
During the four days, we could see a lot of interestingand special places, such as the famous Nojima Fault
and its preservation museum, the world largest shaking
table at E Defence laboratory and the world largest
suspension bridge “Akashi Kaikyo Bridge”.
1995 Kobe earthquake is famous and images of thecollapsed elevated Hanshin Expressway made front
pages on newspapers worldwide. Through our visit tothis city, we realized how great effort Japan made torebuild the beautiful city with high buildings and well-networked infrastructure.
Personally, I appreciated this city, which represents a symbol of Japanesepolicies against disasters. The knowledge about disaster preparedness andmitigation is essential for progress and development for any country.

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

Call for Papers
IISEE Bulletin is now
accepting submissionsof papers for the seismol og y, ea rt h qu ake
engineering, andtsunami. Developing
countries are targeted,but are n ot limited.
Your original papers
will be reviewed by theeditorial members andsome experts.
NO submission fee isneed.
Try to challenge!!

(2)Mr. Mukunda Bhattarai (Nepal, Seismology Course)
We visited some parts of Kansai region focusing on Osaka, Kobe and Kyoto
cities of Japan. It was a great opportunity for us to closely observe world’s
largest suspension bridge and shaking table located inthis region.
In Osaka city we observed the surface topography
induced by Uemachi Fault. Experience of Kobe
Earthquake 1995 by simulation and the preserved
Nojima Fault printed us unforgettable memories ofearthquake disaster.
The Disaster Reduction and Human Renovation
Institution in Kobe passed us feeling of survivors as well as the effectiveness ofreconstruction and recovery calendar after such disaster. Visit to ancient capital
Kyoto provided a rare chance to see the architecture, culture and preservation
methods of national heritage sites.
In this study trip we gained knowledge not only about earthquake safetymeasures in building, bridge and wooden structures but also the effect offaulting in topography and its mechanism during earthquakes.
It is noticed that technological advancement, capacity building and publicawareness are key features for the mitigation of large earthquake disasters inJapan.

(3)Mr. Nurpujiono (Indonesia, Tsunami Disaster Mitigation Course)
Study trip to Kansai areas was very advantageous trip.
I was very impressed with Inamura-no-Hi story which was created in order tolearn and hand down the achievements and spirit of Hamaguchi Goryo, who isrenowned for saving villagers from tsunami with “the fire of rice sheaves.”
Japanese people respect and learn from historicaldisaster, therefore the victims are reduced.
Japanese Government is very concerned
about
preparing facilities to face the expected large
earthquakes along the Nankai Trough. I was also
impressed with pedestrian bridge type Tsunami
Evacuation Towers in Yoshida town. Japanese
Government considers the policies to save life, to savethe properties and to support people’s future in dealingwith disaster prevention.
Facilities as breakwater, seawall, water gate, floodgate and tsunami evacuation
tower are not implemented in my country yet. My country is prone withearthquakes and tsunamis therefore I am wondering if someday my country
may follow Japan in dealing with disaster.

Lunch under the Cherry Blossoms
On Friday April 4, IISEE had a “Cherry Blossom Viewing” lunch party.
Although it rained the day before, we enjoyed a good view of cherry blossoms
and Japanese style lunch boxes. New staff members, Dr. Azuhata, Ms.
Fujinuma and Ms. Maeda introduced themselves.

Cherrytrees
aroundIISEE
buildings came into full bloom atthe beginning of April. It’s just intime. They are beautiful but thetime of their full bloom is brief.

Enjoy, Now

Cherry blossom viewing is one of
the Japanese people’s traditional
seasonal events. People go to seethem with their family, friends andcolleagues and enjoy eating anddrinking. We were happy to haveshared the time with training
participants under the beautiful
blossoms.

Cherry Blossom Viewing Lunch Party

Letter from Ex-Participants✑✉Prof. Florin-Ermil DABIJA, Emeritus Professor

Contact Us
The IISEE Newsletter isintended to act as ago-between for IISEE
and 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.
iiseenews@kenken.go.jp
http://iisee.kenken.go.jp

Technical University of Civil Engineering Bucharest(Romania, Earthquake Engineering course, 1966-1967)
Prof Dabija from Romania has sent us his kind message of condolence following
the death of Dr. Sheldon Cherry. With his permission, we are carrying hismessage as follows;
During the academic year 1966-1967 I was one the trainees in Earthquake
Engineering at IISEE and I had the opportunity to attend the excellent lectures
given by Dr. Sheldon Cherry, who was at that time acting as a UNESCO expert.
Ten years later, he visited Romania in the aftermath of the very severe
earthquake (M=7.2) that hit our country on March 4, 1977. On that occasion Iwas very glad to meet him and discuss in a much friendly way a lot of matters,
technical as well as general ones. I appreciated very much the support he gavein the early '90- ties to the Institute (now the University) of Civil Engineering
Bucharest, by providing and sending a lot of books and magazines related to
up-to-date seismic-resistant design of buildings.
So, I am now very sad to get the news of his passing away. I have really thefeeling of having lost a friend. May he rest in peace.

Dear Readers:
We regret to inform you that IISEE website has been shut down since
March 24, due to the unauthorized intrusion into our systems.

Back Numbers
http://iisee.kenken.go.jp/nldb/

We are really sorry that this happened. This incident was very upsetting
us. With your support and many requests all over the world, we resume
our website gradually. Up to now some databases are still cannot beconnected. We are now doing everything to reopen those databases. We
apologize for your inconvenience and thank you for your patience.
IISEE✐Snapshots of Kansai Study Trip

E Diffence(Miki-city)

Hyogo

Bridge Tower Tourof Akashi-Kaikyo Suspension
BridgeSeismic Isolation System(Daiwa House)

WakayamaTsukuba
Tsunami Evacuation Tower

Tokyo

Taikyu-Sha(an private academy establishedby Hamaguchi Goryo)

Yoshida-town in Shizuoka

OsakaKyoto
Kiyomizudera Observation

Kiyomizudera Temple