JSCE Newsletter No.25, July 2008

Japan Society of Civil Engineers
International Activities Committee

Newsletter
No. 25, July 2008
Contents

June 2008- May 2009
President
KAYAHARA Hideo
Vice-Presidents
INAMURA Hajime
OTSUKA Hisanori
KUSAKABE Osamu
TANIGUCHI Hiroaki
HOSHINO Mitsuru

JSCE International Awardee -------------------p.2
2008 JSCE Annual Meeting in Sendai -------p.2
Civil Engineering Design Prize, JSCE -------p.3

Report of International Activities -------p.5
Project Report from Algeria -------------p.6
Student Network ---------------------------p.7

Greetings from President of JSCE

Executive Director
FURUKI Moriyasu
International Activities
Committee
Chair
KUSAKABE Osamu
Vice-Chair
KAMIYAMA Makoto

KAYAHARA Hideo
President

Secretary General
KOHNO Shigeyuki
Deputy-Secretary
GeneralFUKUDA Atsushi
Committee Member /Secretary
KOBAYAKAWA Satoru
SADAMURA Hirofumi
TAKEDA Shinichi
NODA Masaru
HORIKOSHI Kenichi
MATSUSHIMA Kakuya
YAMAGUCHI Eiki
International Chapter
Taiwan Section
Der-Her Lee
Korea Section
Kook Il Kim
U.K. Section
SOGA Kenichi
Mongolia Section
Dorjderem Chirchin
Turkey Section
Zeki HasgürIndonesia Section
Sutanto Soehodho
Thailand Section
Samart Ratchapolsitte
Philippines Section
Benit Morelos Pacheco
Yotsuya 1-chome,
Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo
160-0004 JAPAN
Tel: +81-3-3355-3452
Fax: +81-3-5379-2769
http://www.jsce-int.org
iad@jsce.or.jp

I was elected in May this year as the President of JSCE for the
2008/2009 term.
I have been the Chairman of the Ports and Harbours Association Japan
since 1998 when I retired from the Government service. Before then I had
been working as a government official for the Ministry of Transport, theEconomic Planning Agency and the National Land Agency, mainly in thefield of port planning and engineering as well as strategic planning such as
Comprehensive National Development Plans, for more than 34 years since
my university graduation of Civil Engineering Department. The Vice
Minister for Transport in technical affairs, after the Director General of Portsand Harbours Bureau, was my last professional career in the government
service.
As a member of JSCE, I have been actively involved in various
activities of the society which include as an editorial committee member
when I was very young, and later on as one of the Vice Presidents whencolleague board members and I contributed to establishing fellow
membership and the certificated engineers system of JSCE.
Strong winds are now blowing in Japan against public works forinfrastructural investments and civil engineers as well. Decreasing numbersof the applicants for the civil engineering departments in higher education
clearly depicts this trend. As the President of JSCE, it will be my first job,on the one hand, to continue my best efforts in explaining citizens thesignificance of civil engineering, on the other, to sincerely listen to theircriticism. It is my firm belief that the future of the country will be shaded
without stable improvement and maintenance of social infrastructures, norsufficient numbers of engineers in succeeding generation who would be
responsible for these works. Already I have committed as the President to a
new movement which will make the responsible and devoted engineers
apparent on the project sites such as bridges, dams and port facilities etc., inwishing this would provide chances for better understandings of citizens on
the significance of infrastructure, and for giving aspirations to the young toconsider civil engineering as his or her future career. (continue page2)

Also available on web: http://www.jsce-int.org/

1

JSCE Newsletter No.25, July 2008

The new strategic plan “New National
Land Sustainability Plan” was approved by the
Cabinet in July this year which advocates thatthrough the direct inter-regional exchanges
among Asian countries including Japan, by
sharing growing power and confidence, lead tosustainable and stable growth of the countries
together with. I am convinced that achieving
this would certainly require challenging
infrastructural development both in economicand engineering terms, and practical solutions
cannot be realized without effective
cooperation of civil engineers in Asian
countries. The last but not the least, as the
JSCE President, I would further consolidate
anddevelopsuch
cooperation
andcollaboration among Asian civil engineerswhich have been started in my predecessors.

Dr. J.C. CHERN won the 2007
JSCE International Award
Jenn-Chuan CHERNInternational Awardwinner for the year of 2007
Vice-minister, Public
Construction Commission,
Cabinet, Taiwan (R.O.C.)
Honorary President,
Taiwan Section, JSCE

The JSCE 94th General Assembly washeld at Hotel Metropolitan Edmont on May 30,
2008. At this event, the International Award
was presented to five civil engineers for theirsignificant contributions to the advancement of
the Japanese civil engineering science andtechnology.
Dr.
Jenn-Chuan
CHERN,
Honorary President of Taiwan Section, JSCE
was the only foreign nationality among theaward winners.

Announce of 2008 JSCE Annual
Meeting in Sendai-International ProgramsThe Annual Meeting will feature theinternational programs focusing on current
issues surrounding the civil engineering
profession. All registrants of the Meeting are
cordially invited to the following meetings.
Please take this opportunity to hear the ideas
and opinions of our distinguished guest
engineers from home and abroad.
Venue: Tohoku University, Kawauchi North
Campus, Multimedia Education andResearch Complex
1. International Roundtable Meeting
Topic: "Who Constructed It?" - Civil
Engineers' Revisualization of Goal and Public's
Reacknowledgement of Civil Engineers'
Achievements
Date: Wednesday, 10th September
Time: 13:00-15:30
2. Panel Discussion
Topic: "Expectations and AssistanceInternational Students in Japan"
Date: Wednesday, 10th September
Time: 16:10-18:10

to

3. WFEO-JFES-JSCE Joint International
Symposium on Disaster Risk Management
Date: Thursday, 11th September
Time: 9:00-12:00
Organizers: WFEO, JFES, JSCE
Co-organizer: SCJ (Science Council of Japan)(to be determined)
4. 2nd Workshop on Harmonization of
Design Codes in the Asian Region
Date: Thursday, 11th September
Time: 9:00-16:00
Organizer: ACECC TC-8
”Technical Committee on Harmonization of
Design Codes in the Asian Region”
Venue: Tohoku University, Multimedia
Education and Research Complex Room M401
*For more information:
http://www.jsce-int.org/event/2008/
annual_meeting/international_programs.shtml

Dr. Ishii, Dr. Chern,Prof. Okamura and Mr. Kayahara (from left)
2

Also available on web: http://www.jsce-int.org/

JSCE Newsletter No.25, July 2008

Civil Engineering Design Prize(CEDP)
2007 Report

Photo 2
Civil Engineering Design Grand Prize

1. The award ceremony 2007
CEDP held its annual award ceremony at
the JSCE hall on May 17, 2008. (Photo 1)
There were thirty-one distinct Civil
Engineering submissions that included a wide
variety of projects; bridge, station, road, river,park, promenade and so on.
Entries were evaluated through a twotiered selection process by the seven member
committee.
From the submitted designs, ten prizes
were awarded inclusive of three Civil
Engineering Grand Prizes. (Photos 2- 3)

Photo1. Award Ceremonytaken by Akiyoshi, Nii, Dr. of Eng.
(Kokushikan University)

Total Design of Tomata Dam Area
(Okayama prefecture)

MOERENUMA PARK

(Hokkaido)

2. About the CEDPThe CEDP program is managed by theLandscape and Design Committee, a group
established within the JSCE. The program has
provided seventy-four awards since its
inception in 2001.
The objective of this program is torecognize individuals and organizations thathave made notable contribution to landscapedevelopment and maintenance in public areasof Japan. The intention of this program is tooffer the award to individual and organizationthat accomplished the project through theunique idea or the creative utilization ofplanning system, and it includes organizational
activities of the NGO, NPO or designcommittee, etc.. This program emphasizes theindividual and organization rather than work
itself.
Applications for CEDP 2008 arecontinuously accepted from July.

Landscape and Town planning of
KANEYAMA(Yamagata prefecture)(Continue page 4)*CEDP Website:
http://www.jsce.or.jp/committee/lsd/prize/inde
x.html
By OKADA Tomohide, Dr. of Eng.
(Secretary of CEDP, JSCE, Nihon Univ.)
Also available on web: http://www.jsce-int.org/

3

JSCE Newsletter No.25, July 2008

Photo3. Civil Engineering Design Prize

Shitsumi-Ohashi Bridge(Shimane prefecture)

Shoujingawa Hometown River
Project -Shoujin Riverside
Park Area(Hokkaido)

Repair Planning of JR
Hamamatsu North Gate Station
Plaza(Shizuoka prefecture)

Toba Seaside Promenade"Kamome-no Sampomichi"(Mie prefecture)

Yahagi River Stream, Fusso
and Otsuri-doba(Aichi prefecture)

Canal Town Hyogo(Hyogo prefecture)■Selection Committee

Residential Area "ARCADIA21"(Hyogo prefecture)- Koichi Amano (Nihon Univ.) /Chairman of CEDP
- Kazuhiro Nishikawa(National Institute for Land and Infrastructure Management)- Kazuo Tanaka (GK Design Group Inc.)- Masao Sasaki(Atelier 74 Architecture and City Planning Institute)- Naoki Egawa (Kansai Univ.)- Yasushi Onodera (Onodera-Yasushi City Planning Office)- Yukihiro Shimatani (Kyushu Univ.)

JSCE News from May to June, 2008May:
2nd JSCE dispatch Myanmar-Cyclone Disaster Research Team (to May 3rd).
7th Philippines Section was established.
12th Large earthquake hit Sichuan province in China.
26th JSCE promote organizing “Interdisciplinary Liaison Council for Technological Restoration andRecovery Support for Sichuan Great Earthquake Disaster”, with 5 academic societies- Architecture
Institute of Japan, Japan Geotechnical Society, Japan Earthquake Engineering Association and Japan
Earthquake Society.
28th JSCE dispatch the 1st Restoration Technical Support Team to Sichuan, China (until June 1st).
30th The 94th General Assembly and Awarding Ceremony was held in Tokyo.
June:
10th SVR-JSCE Joint Seminar on Concrete Engineering was held in Bålstra, Sweden.
14th The Iwate-Miyagi Nairiku Earthquake hit middle of Tohoku district, Japan.
15th JSCE dispatch Iwate-Miyagi Earthquake Disaster Research Team with Japan Geotechnical Society(until June 19th).
20th Debriefing of Iwate-Miyagi Earthquake was held in JSCE Headquarters.
20th JSCE dispatch the 2nd Restoration Technical Support Team to Sichuan, China (until June 25th).
28th Inauguration Ceremony of Philippines Section of JSCE was held in Manila, Philippines.
4

Also available on web: http://www.jsce-int.org/

JSCE Newsletter No.25, July 2008

International Familiarization of ISO
Code for Performance-Base Designfor Geotechnical Engineering

TOWHATA Ikuo
Professor of the University of Tokyo
The shrinking of public investment in
the recent times gives an impression that
construction business has to be patient underadversity. It should however be recalled that,since Meiji period, most Japanese industries
have been gaining good income from overseas
market, and that this overseas-oriented attitude
has been the fundamental theme of Japan
where population is large and natural resources
are insufficient.
The competition in the international
market should not be the one on price, because,
if involved in such a competition, there will be
no meaning of overseas expansion. It is ideal
to carry into competition of quality or an
intellectual level so that better profits may beobtained. In this regard noteworthy is that
research aiming overseas markets is alreadydeveloped at the research institute of Korean
construction industries. The speed of decisionmaking is the good point of this nation.
For a successful competition of quality
or an intellectual level, it is a good idea tomake a good fame of the Japanese constructionindustries. The good fame is the basis thatmakes people trust the Japanese industry
irrespective of the price to be paid. Potentiallypromising field of engineering in this regard is
the mitigation of natural disasters. In Japan,
there are such types of natural disasters as
earthquakes, heavy rainfalls, and typhoons, andmitigation technologies have been trained andverified by such real phenomena. Thishistorical fact is an actual proof that induces
people’s faith securer than anything else.
With the viewpoint as above, aninternational activity is going on in which
performance-based design principles forgeotechnical earthquake engineering is pushed
toward the international market. With afinancial support from NEDO of Japanese
government and under the co-sponsorship of
JSCE (Geotechnical Engineering Committee),
Also available on web: http://www.jsce-int.org/

this activity organizes international workshops
in many countries of the world where
earthquake problems are serious. It is therein
intended to push forward the recently
established ISO Code so that performancebased design principle is made familiar in theworld. As is well known, the performancebased design (PBD) principle requires
assessment of (seismic) performance ofstructures and this assessment needs goodlevels of knowledge and experience in theparticular field. If this design principle is set inforce in overseas market, good and wellexperienced engineers in Japan and probably
USA will be able to get more business.
Furthermore, the workshops put emphasis on
not only the engineering advantage of PBD but
also the financial advantage that is more easily
understood by financial officers and tax payers.
For this purpose, examples designs were madeof geotechnical structures from the viewpointof life cycle cost (LCC).
Among the series of international
workshops on PBD and LCC, the first one took
place in London in March at the Institution of
Civil Engineers (ICE); see Photo 1. This event
was important in that it was the first JSCE-ICE
joint event after a presidential agreement was
signed last Fall for future collaboration.
Speakers were the writer and Prof. Iai of Kyoto
University who convened the aforementioned
ISO together with Prof. Soga of Cambridge
University, who is currently a representative of
UK Chapter of JSCE. Several good engineers
were also invited from UK side. Following
events, similar ones have been organized in
LCPC (Laboratoire Central des Ponts et
Chaussees) of France, Nante, at ASCE
Geotechnical
Earthquake
Engineering
Conference in Sacramento, and at GEDMAR
Conference in Nanjing, China. Although thisseries of workshops will complete in Teheranin August, it is planned that a similar one will
be organized in Japan under the auspices ofJapan Association for Earthquake Engineering.

Photo: PBD workshop at ICE in London
in March, 2008.
5

JSCE Newsletter No.25, July 2008

Construction ofAlgerian East-West Highway
by Japanese Consortium (COJAAL)
People's Democratic Republic of
Algeria is a Muslim country located in the
North Africa along the Mediterranean Sea. The
total area is about 2.4 million km2, where themajority is occupied by Sahara desert. The
population is about 34 million, 80 % of which
are Arabic, and others are Berber. Atlas
Mountains are located in the northern part ofAlgeria.
A mega construction project of theAlgerian East-West Highway is ongoing under
the National Highway Agency (ANA: Agence
Nationale Des Autoroutes). The total distanceis about 1200 km from the border with Tunisia
to the other border with Morocco. The
highway is planned to have three lanes eachway throughout its length.
The construction is divided into 3 lots,
i.e. East Lot, Central Lot, and West Lot. The
design-build contract of the East Lot with the
distance of about 400 km was awarded to theJapanese consortium, “COJAAL: Consortium
Japonais Pour l'Autoroute Algerienne”. The
COJAAL consists of five Japanese companies(Kajima, Taisei, Nishimatsu, Hazama, andItochu). The total construction order amounts
to about 540 billion Japanese Yen, which is thelargest international infrastructure projectawarded to Japanese companies. The
construction period was set at 40 months after
the 1st agreement of the contract on September
2006.
The East Lot is divided into 12
sections. All the sections except thosecompleted by the Italian contractors are
assigned to COJAAL. The Head quarters of
COJAAL are located both in Algiers and6

Also available on web: http://www.jsce-int.org/

JSCE Newsletter No.25, July 2008

Constantine. Seven camps are dotted along the
highway set up by the member of COJAAL. At
the moment, more than 600 Japanese staffs areworking together for the project in Algeria.
The total number of staffs and workers reaches
about 28,000.
The construction scale of the East Lot
is tremendous. The earthwork volume reaches
about 59.4 million m3 of fill, and 79.9 million
m3 of cut and excavation just only for the East
Lot. COJAAL is also in charge of theconstruction of 3 tunnel sections and 50
bridges.
The geological conditions are very
complex due to the long period of foldactivities of Atlas Mountains, which causes
difficulty in tunnel excavations. The groundprofiles at the site consist of soft soils overimpermeable marl deposits. Therefore, unlesssome appropriate measures are taken, evenvery gentle slopes may cause landslides. A
number of experts including university
professors in the fields of landslides, earthwork,
tunneling, pavement, and concrete have visited
COJAAL to tackle technical issues of eachfield.
Algeria has just entered the summer
dry season. The project is also entering its peakstage in this summer.
By ISHIDA Minoru (COJAAL, Kajima Corporation)
KOSUGE Makoto (COJAAL, Taisei Corporation)

Student Network-Voice from the StudentsConstruction and Management ofBridge and Highway Systems in
Japan

Name: Le Thanh Nam
Country: Vietnum
School: KYOTO UNIVERSITY
What Japanese infrastructure systems
struck me, a civil engineering student from
Vietnam, was the integration of the wholesystem grounded on the solid base of advanced
Also available on web: http://www.jsce-int.org/

construction and networking technology. The
most impressive infrastructures include a highspeed bullet train Shinkansen, sea-airport
terminals, and large-scale bridges, tunnels andhighway systems. Today I would like to share
my impression on the construction andmanagement of bridge and highway systems inJapan.
First of all, it is about the design. It
appears to me that urban infrastructure in
Japan has been designed in such a way that not
one component but all the components of one
city or even the country has been wellintegrated with one another. The constructionof bullet train Shinkansen and Kansai airport
are good examples. This integration allows
construction of mega-scale infrastructure thatis smoothly connected to the existing set ofurban infrastructure in operation. Construction
work itself will not hamper ongoing operationof other transport systems. This sophisticatedlevel of integration is reflected in developmentof mathematical asset management model that
I am working on in Japan at the moment. I
came to know that the construction andmanagement of infrastructure in Japan
extensively involves various mathematicalmodeling in order to predict life cycle costs ofeach infrastructure component, allowing thegovernment to allocate the budget to the rightlocation at the right time. Such practice is yet
unknown in Vietnam where construction of astructure can be suspended at any times assoon as budget is found in short even in the
middle of construction.
Secondly, construction of any
structures in Japan strictly follows rigid safety
regulations and environment protection
standards. Facilities are frequently inspected
and monitored for preparedness of incident
occurrences and environmental impacts suchas wastewater discharge and air emission. In
Vietnam, even use of safety helmets byconstruction labors has not been obligated.
Vietnam also has environmental standards ofinfrastructure and industrial settings but
inspection and monitoring are rarely conductedin an appropriate and justifiable manner.
The opportunity to study thisinfrastructure construction and management
system in Japan will definitely be a valuable
future asset for me. I am certain that mycountry can learn through benchmarking someof the success stories in infrastructure
management in Japan. I wish to learn more
about this system and ultimately contribute to
the development of infrastructure systems in
Vietnam by sharing my skills and knowledge
that I will gain during my stay in Japan.
7

JSCE Newsletter No.25, July 2008

Information
Event Calendar
JSCE 2008 Annual Meeting &63rd Annual Conference
Date: September 10-12, 2008
Place: Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

International Program
Day 1: Sep. 10, 2008
1) Roundtable Meeting
2) Panel Discussion
Day 2: Sep. 11, 2008
3) WFEO-JFES-JSCE Symposium4) 2nd Workshop on Harmonization of Design
Codes in the Asian Region--------------------------------------------------------------

The 10th International Summer
Symposium, JSCE
Date: Sept 18, 2008
Place: JSCE Headquarter, Tokyo, Japan*For more information: http://www.jsce-int.org/.
--------------------------------------------------------------

September 2008
14-19 IABSE Annual Meetings and Congress 2008
Venue: The Westin Michigan Avenue Hotel,
Chicago, USA
URL: http://www.iabse2008chicago.org/
30-Oct. 2 8th International Conference on Creep,
Shrinkage and Durability of Concrete andConcrete Structures
Venue: Shima-Kanko Hotel, Mie, Japan
URL: http://concrete-lab.civil.nagoya-u.ac.jp/
concreep8/index.htm

October
12-17 14th World Conference on Earthquake
Engineering
Venue: Beijing Jiuhua International Conference
and Exhibition Center, Beijing, China
URL: http://www.14wcee.org/

27-29 8th International Symposium on Utilizationof High-Strength and High-Performance Concrete
Venue: Toshi Center Hotel, Tokyo, Japan
URL: http://www.jci-web.jp/8HSC-HPC/index.html

November
5-7 ICSE-4 Tokyo 2008( Fourth International
Conference on Scour and Erosion)
Venue: Surugadai Memorial Hall ,Chuo University, Tokyo, Japan
URL: http://icse-4.kz.tsukuba.ac.jp/index-e.html
23-25 International Workshop on FrontierTechnologies for Infrastructures Engineering(IWFTIE2008)
Venue: National Taiwan Univ. of Science andTechnology, Taipei, Taiwan
URL: http://www.iwftie2008.com/
19-21 EASEC – 11 (East Asia-Pacific Conferenceon Structural Engineering and Construction)
Venue: National Taiwan Univ., Taipei, Taiwan
URL: http://easec11.easec.org/index.html
8Call for Paper
ConMat ‘09
Date: August 24 -26 2009
Place: Nagoya Congress Center, Nagoya, Japan
Important Dates:
Submission Abstract: September 15, 2008
Notification of acceptance: November 15, 2008
Submission manuscript: January 31, 2009
Notification of acceptance: March 31, 2009
Submission final manuscript
URL: http://www.jci-web.jp/conmat09/--------------------------------------------------------------

Coastal Dynamics 09 (Tokyo)
Date: September 7 -11 2009
Place: Toranomon Pastoral Hotel, Tokyo, Japan
Important Dates:
Abstract Submission
Open on the web: October 1, 2008
Ddeadline: December 22, 2008
URL: http://www.coastal.jp/cd09/--------------------------------------------------------------

IABSE Symposium 2009 – Sustainable
InfrastructureDate: September 9 -11 2009
Place: Bangkok, Thailand
Important Dates
Abstract Submission: August 31, 2008
URL: http://www.iabse.org/conferences/
Bangkok2009/index.php--------------------------------------------------------------

Coasts, Marine Structures and Breakwaters
2009
Date: September 16 -18 2009
Place: Edinburgh International ConferenceCentre(EICC), Scotland, UK
Important Dates
Abstract Submission: August 1, 2008
URL: http://www.ice-breakwaters.com/

Let’s Join to JSCE!
We invite you to become a JSCE Member.
JSCE Membership includes member benefits
discounts and privileges. The members also canhave many opportunities to participate in various
JSCE activities, to achieve their professional
development goals and to work with engineers allover the world.
If you interested in JSCE, please visit the
JSCE website http://www.jsce-int.org.
Send your comments and suggestions to:
iad@jsce.or.jp
JSCE Website: http://www.jsce-int.org
Editorial Board:
Information Subcommittee,
International Activities Committee, JSCE
Editor in chief: Dr. HORIKOSHI Kenichi
Deputy Editor: Mr. YOSHIDA Youichi

Also available on web: http://www.jsce-int.org/