2023. 4. 3

Japan Society of Civil Engineers
International Activities Center

IAC News No.126
Dr. Kimura’s Hopes as the Senior Director ofthe International Activities CenterI Makoto Kimura was appointed Senior Director of the International Activities Center inAugust last year. Until the end of March, I taught at the Department of Civil and Earth
Resources Engineering as part of the Graduate School of Engineering at Kyoto
University, but I retired early and will begin a new challenge in May. Moving on frombeing a university faculty member, I will work full-time at Bond Engineering, aconstruction company responsible for the maintenance and management of civilengineering structures, not as a consultant or technical advisor but as a director of thePhoto by Ryo Kusumoto

private-sector company. I will help educate the next generation on new ways of working. Makoto Kimura（Senior Director of theI have spent the last 45 years straight contributing to research, education, and society at International Activities
Kyoto University. Since 1993, I have been involved in a JICA project to build a Center）
university in Kenya, Africa. I have visited 23 countries in Africa, visiting the continent
about 100 times to develop the implementation of a social infrastructure that adopts the training of humanresources and the outcomes of research. I have also spent a whopping 15 years undertaking international nonprofit organization activities (CORE: Community Road Empowerment) rooted in improving unpaved roads
using sandbags with the help of local citizens under the theme of reducing poverty.
The International Activities Center of JSCE is led by six groups (Information, International Exchange, Education,
International Students, Projects, and International Engineers), and engages in efforts with the following fivegoals: (1) Promoting activities that should play a leading role in the international community, (2) sharing
information on technological trends in advanced countries, etc., (3) promoting the seamless integration ofdomestic and international activities and supporting the development of young talent, (4) strengthening
collaboration between industry, government, and academia in fields where overseas expansion shows promiseand publishing relevant information, and (5) building and strengthening a personnel network with overseas
stakeholders.
President Ueda’s special committee (General Committee to Internationalize Japanese Civil Engineering) offiscal 2022 carried out activities under the three themes of (1) developing engineers who can work overseas, (2)providing information to help young engineers establish their career map, and (3) creating projects that are
attractive to overseas markets and can contribute to the international community. At the International Activities
Center, I plan to continue the great work of these activities and spend a great deal of time working with1

investigation and research committees, etc. to ensure these activities take root. However, how we will link thethree activities of the aforementioned special committee with the existing activities of the six groups within theInternational Activities Center and promote them permanently is a topic that requires future discussion.
I have always thought in terms of “scrap and build” at various organizations. Universities and academic societies
have a tendency to constantly build without scrapping, but I believe that bold scrapping is necessary to provide
opportunities for upcoming personnel. I hope to frequently share information on the efforts of the InternationalActivities Center with all members, receive your honest thoughts and opinions, and then use this feedback tohelp improve our subsequent activities. While digital transformation (DX) has become a buzzword in society, Iwould like to place an emphasis on the latter word “transformation” to breathe new life into international
initiatives. Thank you for your continued support.

【Reported by Makoto Kimura, Senior Director of International Activities Center(Professor Emeritus, Kyoto University)】

A Message from the JSCE President

Japan and the Need of Its Civil Engineering Researchers
to Strengthen Their Global Outlook
The previous messages from the JSCE President stated thefollowing. While Japan has mainly rolled out civil engineering
technologies overseas through ODA initiatives, in comparison toother major countries, Japan’s percentage of overseas projects issmall. Therefore, going forward, it needs to roll out overseas
projects without relying on ODA. To make this happen, Japanese
civil engineers must also work on the international stage. So what
about research and researchers in the field of civil engineering?
Focused mainly on ODA, civil engineering researchers also headed
overseas and supervised research at local universities there orsupervised research at Japanese universities that took onscholarship students sponsored by the Japanese government.
Although the majority of research supervision was taught in English
and research results were published in English, a lot of the research
was published in Japan. The problem in Japan of Japanese students
not staying on in further education to take the doctoral degree

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Photographer Rumiko Ito

Tamon Ueda
110th President of the Japan Societyof Civil Engineers

program had been resolved by talented overseas students from abroad continuing their education to attain theirdoctoral degree. If such students achieved excellent results, it was normal for them to be published in a firstclass journal in Japan even if the paper is written in English. The goal of many researchers was to be accredited
by winning a JSCE award or the like. It is possible that a reason for this is also the fact that the quality of papers
in first-class journals in Japan was seen to be higher than that of overseas journals.
This situation has gradually changed as we entered the 21st century. Being published in a journal with an impact
factor has become the goal in civil engineering research too. Papers from Japan as well are now published inoverseas international journals that are regarded as being world-class in the civil engineering field. Therefore,
some Japanese journals have become journals recognized worldwide as meeting the standard set by international
journals and having the impact factor.
So what about the current situation 20-plus years on from entering the 21st century? Although the only data I
have is from my specialist field (concrete engineering), it is relatively low that the number of papers from Japan
published in first-class international journals is about 1 to 2%, meanwhile papers published from Japan acrossall science fields is about 4%. My experience at the last university I worked at is that the percentage ofinternational journal papers among all the published papers of the civil engineering faculty was clearly lower
than that of other engineering fields.
One of the reasons the number of international journal papers in the civil engineering field is low is thought tobe that there is great importance placed on the social contribution of civil engineering compared to other naturalscience fields. In other words, addressing local issues is required of research in the civil engineering field.
However, civil engineering must also address global issues. Society recognizes that the contribution of civilengineering toward the SDGs is large. I believe that civil engineering in Japan, where the research level isfortunately still high, can be expected to contribute over the long term to fundamental research as well as theaddressing of global issues and, in particular, issues of developing countries where infrastructure is still to bebuilt.
At

present,

JSCE

has

Subcommittee

onInternationalization

Visionfor Academic

Activities

inCivilsetandup

aResearchEngineering(Chairperson: Kohei Nagai) within thesociety. The committee calls together
young researchers from different fields tocheck the standing of Japanese civilengineering research in the world anddiscuss how to make a global contribution.
I hope we will see the fruits of thesediscussions. JSCE will continue to support
the development of global researchers.

International Workshop for Young Civil Engineers

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International Seminar “Investment in disaster risk
reduction and climate change adaptation:Transdisciplinary perspectives”
In Jakarta, Indonesia on Tuesday, February 28, 2023, the International Research Institute of Disaster Science(IRIDeS) at Tohoku University held an international seminar entitled “Investment in disaster risk reduction andclimate change adaptation: Transdisciplinary perspectives” together with the Faculty of Psychology at theUniversity of Indonesia and the Indonesian Association of Disaster Experts (IABI). This international seminar
was held both in-person and online (venue: Le Meridien Jakarta, online: Zoom Webinar), with approximately
80 attendees overall.
The event started with opening speeches by Prof. FumihikoImamura, Director of IRIDeS, and Prof. Bagus Takwin, Headof the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Indonesia.
This was followed by a keynote lecture by Prof. Syamsul
Maarif, former Director of the National Disaster Management
Agency, who discussed investment in disaster prevention inIndonesia. Next up were research presentations and a debate
involving Prof. Hizir Sofyan, former Vice Dean of Syiah
Kuala University, and four other panelists. The event went
swimmingly, with lots of questions from attendees at theKeynote Lecture by Prof. Syamsul Maarif, Former
Director of the National Disaster Management
Agencyvenue as well.
In the discussions that used the city of Banda Aceh as anexample, panelists emphasized the need to improve theabilities of the city’s citizens and declared that there is a needfor graduate school-level education programs. In response tothe observation that the budget for disaster prevention
assigned by the national government is insufficient inIndonesia, a discussion was held about what mechanisms arenecessary, using case studies in Japan as a basis for exploring
the topic. There were also discussions on how the rationalityof public funding for disaster prevention should be judged,

Panel Discussion

considering the current situation in Indonesia where issues
such as poverty must also be tackled. Furthermore, while private investment is seen as an important issue, it waspointed out that there are few cases where its use has been effective.
Today, with the growth of populations and further urbanization, more people are exposed to the risk of disasters,
especially in developing countries. Also, climate change means that existing risks are becoming increasingly
severe while also bringing about new risks. In order to build resilience against disasters in such circumstances,4

even more investment is required to address disaster prevention and climate change issues. I would like tocontinue to clarify the issues in increasing investment and propose government policies and innovative
approaches that contribute to the realization of a resilient and sustainable society.
This international seminar was held with financial assistance from the JSCE International Scientific Exchange
Fund. I would also like to take this opportunity to say thanks to the JSCE International Scientific Exchange
Fund as well.

Panelists【Reported by Daisuke Sasaki, International Research Institute of Disaster Science (IRIDeS),
Tohoku University】

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