NEWS LETTER 2008

AJCE Activity 2007

AJCE/ACEA Young Professionals Exchange Programme 2008
-unique experiences for young engineers-

Keiichi KANAI
ChairmanProfessional Development Promotion Sub-Committee, AJCE
Young Professionals Exchange Programme (YPEP)
was established in 1996 to develop good relationships
and friendships between Japanese and Australian
young consulting engineers through mutual visit andstay with member firms of AJCE and its Australiancounterpart, ACEA (Association of Consulting
Engineers Australia). In the past decade, more than
90 young engineers participated in the programme,
and it has been noted in the FIDIC society as a good
example of international capacity building effort.

Last year, AJCE and its member companies hosted
six young professionals from Australia’s leading
consulting firms for three weeks in October. The
programme consisted of internship at host companies
and various ofﬁcial events offered by AJCE, such asYoung Summit Forum and Weekend Trip to Kyoto &Nara. While I believe everybody fully enjoyed andappreciated the programme in Japan, I would like toemphasize the importance of the new component

Welcome Party

List of companies and exchangees of YPEP 2007
No.

Company in Australia Name

NAME

Host company in Japan

1

Arup

David Murchland

CTI Engineering Co., Ltd.

2

Costin Roe Consulting Pty Ltd

Mark Wilson

IDEA Consultants ,Inc.

3

Costin Roe Consulting Pty Ltd

James Disher

Oriental Consultants Co., Ltd.

4

Maunsell Australia

Katherine Alexander

Oriental Consultants Co., Ltd.

5QANTEC McWILLIAM

Nathan Scott

Chodai Co., Ltd.

6

Simpson Kotsman Pty Ltd.

Robert Spenceley

P.T. Morimura & Associates, Ltd

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AJCE Activity 2007
added to the programme last year, which is previsit "dialogue" between a participant and his/her
mentor from the host company. The "dialogue" wasintroduced to YPEP as a result of intensive discussions
between AJCE and ACEA toward improvement andrevitalization of the 10 year old programme. It was
intended to help a participant and a mentor knoweach other in advance so that the programme could
be started more readily and effectively. This worked
as well as we had expected. Despite some difﬁculties
in communication experienced in the early weeks,
the engineers on both sides introduced themselves
and exchanged such information as their technicalbackground, their ﬁrms’ business lines and their points
of interest. By the time the programme started, they
had become somewhat familiar with each other, andthe opening session on October 12 turned out to be
the most lively and effective one in the YPEP history.
The contents of internship programmes were leftto each host company, so it could be structured
to meet a participant’s interest and utilize a hostcompany’s area of expertise. Generally, they
included discussions with young Japanese engineers,
working on actual projects with mentors, project site
visits and meeting with clients, and I am sure that theyalso included many Japanese-style dinner parties, ofcourse.
As a main social event, AJCE organized a weekend
trip to the famous historic cities of Kyoto and Nara,
where all the participants and mentors enjoyedbeautiful temples, shrines and gardens in a pleasantautumn setting. They stayed at a traditional Ryokan(Japanese-style hotel); perfect accommodation fora group of young people with its casual tatami-room
banquet (Enkai) that went on well into midnight.
One of the highlights was Young Summit Forum,
held on the last day to summarize and conclude
the three-week programme. All participants madepresentation on what they had seen, felt and learnedin the programme. They found many differences
between two countries, of course, in terms of nature,
culture, customs, work environment & practiceand ways of running companies or projects. In themeantime, however, as one participant pointed out,
it was also conﬁrmed that there are many things we

Trip to Kyoto & Nara

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AJCE Activity 2007
have in common as consulting engineers who strive
to create and maintain better environment andinfrastructure for the people. Young Summit Forum
offered another opportunity for the participants todiscuss two selected issues; (1)Human Resources &Capacity Building, and (2)Living in multi-cultural world.
Through active group discussions and presentations,the participants exchanged and shared theirexperiences and opinions on these interesting topics.
Everybody appreciated the opportunity so much that
it was recommended by them to include more time
for discussions in the future programmes, to which I
totally agree.
When YPEP started 12 years ago, it was expected that
this programme would help CE ﬁrms in two countries
develop close business relationships and eventuallywork together in the international consulting field.
So far the outcome in this context is limited, due tothe change in business environment. However, nowthat good partnering in the international market isbecoming essential, the network built up through
YPEP will surely be a big asset for any Australian orJapanese CE firms that are contemplating further
expansion into the ever-growing Asian-Pacificregion. In order to make sure this will happen, every
participant in YPEP has to recognize the value of theobtained network and keep an effort to maintainand develop it in the future. AJCE will enthusiasticallysupport their effort to do so.

Young Summit Forum

This year YPEP will take place in Australia. We would
like to encourage young professionals in bothcountries to have interest and participate in YPEP,
and hope this outstanding programme will contributeto further development of the productive relationshipbetween Australian and Japanese CE industries.

Farewell party

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AJCE Activity 2007

Young Professionals Exchange Program (YPEP)David Murchland
Arup

OutlineResearch Centre for Sustainable Communities, to a visit
to the Tohoku region; technical exchanges with theRoad & Water Divisions, to an AJCE tour to Kyoto/Naraand the Young Summit to wrap it all up.

The YPEP actually began in July via pre-training dialogue
with my host company (CTI Engineering),a very valuable
preparation. Once in Tokyo, an AJCE orientation session
helped get me settled. Just in time! In the next 3 weeks
there was no time to spare, from a day with CTI’s

Ito-san & Wada-san of CTI’s RESCO division

Site Visits

Many site visits were kindly arranged by CTI, including
to Izawa Dam; to numerous
transport infrastructure (Yurikamome,
Metropolitan & Gaikan expressways,
Umihotaru & the Tokyo Wan Aqua
Line, Nissoku Tunnel, and Iroha-zaka);
and to CTI’s Tsukuba hydraulics
laboratory and the Arakawa MLIT
centre. Unfortunately a typhoon
filled the Metropolitan outer area
Izawa Dam, thanks to Kaburaki-san,discharge channel so that I couldn’t
Yamashita-sansee it (but at least it worked!).

Technical Exchangeriver-sewer modeling, real time sewer control systems,
hydrological circulation models with GIS, insurance,
privatisation, energy strategy & sustainability tools.

I learnt a lot about roads (both in Japan and Australia!)
through the exchange, but it was time with CTI’s Water
Management & Research Division that really got
technical. Four days of presentations from me andCTI covered company and national characteristics/
issues, flood forecasting, distributed hydraulicmodels,environmental ﬂows, water quality improvement,
Australian drought characteristics and strategy, natural
hazard risk management in Japan, CTIMike11, coupled

Kinkaku-ji, thanks to AJCE

CultureThe AJCE group tour to Kyoto and Nara was awonder ful opportunity to understand Japanese
history and culture.

FriendshipThanks especially to Sasaki-san (CTI), and to AJCE formaking my time in Japan so memorable!

Road & Transport Division, thanks to
Maeda-san, and Katsuki-san especially

12

Water Management & Research Division,
thanks to Fujiwara-san, Yagami-san ... &everyone else!

NEWS LETTER 2008

AJCE Activity 2007

YPEP 2007 REPORTMark Wilson
Costin Roe Consulting

Where to start? The task of condensing the experienceof spending three weeks in Japan into a single pageis a particularly difﬁcult one. First I would like to express
my thanks to The AJCE and The ACEA for giving me
this great opportunity and secondly to the people
at my host company, IDEA consultants, in particular
to Terashima-san, Ogawasan, Hashitani-san andKobayashi-san, all of who have made my time in Japan
both enjoyable on a social level and rewarding in mycapacity as a professional engineer.

The nearly completed New Tomeii Expressway in
Shizuoka Prefecture, which I observed during mystay here, is a good example of this point. Throughmountainous terrain this expressway, with a design speedof 140km/hr, comprises 40% bridges, 20% tunnels and
40% earthworks over a 400km length. A number of thesebridges, which are in the order of 1km in length, havebeen constructed using composite steel and concrete
systems as opposed to conventional concrete box girder
systems. Unconventional construction staging has beenused been used to good effect in order to overcome
constraints on space and also to reduce costs for bothmaterials and labour.

In my time with IDEA Consultants I have been exposed
to many areas of civil engineering and environmental
monitoring that I have not before been privy to. These
areas include road and river planning, environmental
testing and monitoring, meteorological studies, mapping
for flood prevention, overseas aid projects throughJapans ODA Charter, disaster planning and many others.
And although not all that I have learned while in Japan
can be directly related to the work I perform in Australia
it has all been valuable and interesting information forme to add to my knowledge base. I also believe thatthe aim of the YPEP 2007 is to obtain an appreciation
for not only the technical aspects of the Japanese
consulting engineer but also the cultural and social.

I have enjoyed seeing and learning about the history
and culture of Japan and also seeing the natural beautyof the mountain areas, the temples, shrines and thebright lights of the cities, Tokyo in particular. I think that inmy three weeks here I have only just begun to scratch
the surface of what is a very rich and diverse country. Allof these things been highlights of my time in Japan but
I think that overall it is the people I have met that havemade my time here a memorable experience.
Again I thank all the people for the hospitality shown tome and look forward to returning to Japan sometime in
the near future.

It has been great to get an understanding of theconstraints and challenges Japanese engineers facewhen performing design. These may be in the form ofnatural occurrences such as the consistently occurring
earthquakes, typhoons, floods, global warming andeven volcanic eruption. Other challenges may comefrom human activities like a lack of usable space causedby urban buildup or to a lack of natural resources. But
these constraints do not appear to limit the scope of the
projects that have been performed in the past or thosethat are currently being constructed. On the contrary
these constraints appear to be a catalyst for innovative
design in large-scale projects.

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AJCE Activity 2007

Summary of YPEP 2007

James Disher
Costin Roe Consulting

The two and a half weeks spent at the Kansai ofﬁce
of Oriental Consultants in Osaka was a fantastic
opportunity to experience some of the best ofJapanese culture and also provided wonder ful
opportunities for sightseeing. The time spent in the
Kansai ofﬁce of Oriental Consultants also provided an
opportunity to observe Japanese Engineering andlearn many things from the experience.

particular favourites of mine. Conducting English
lessons during my time in the ofﬁce was also anotherhighlight. Discussion at these informal lessons included
topics like language, cultural identity, sports, popular
culture and the like. They allowed an insight into
Japanese culture that I don’t think would have beenpossible for a tourist visiting Japan and not interactingwith the people as closely.

During the time at the Kansai office there were four
projects that I participated in. The subject of eachof these projects was different, but the process andgoals were similar, to research and survey the different
topics in order to provide background information for
future projects that the company was planning.

Osaka also provided an opportunity to travel to somefascinating sightseeing areas. I was fortunate enoughto be able to visit places such as Kobe, Himeji,
Hiroshima, Miyajima, Takamatsu and Shikoku, as wellas Kyoto, Nara and Tokyo. These places, full of bothnatural beauty and history were different to anything
I had experienced before.

The four projects I worked on the Kansai officeconsisted of sourcing information on Light Rail Transit
systems from around the world, various Architects anddesigners and their body of works, different "Barrier
Free" laws and initiatives around the world, and also
research into how tourism could be generated inrural areas by using old road systems to attract visitors
to the area. Each of these projects highlighted one
common aspect of Japanese Engineering which wasthat Japanese Engineers are very aware of the latest
technical developments internationally and not only
use these initiatives but also like to build on them anddevelop the ideas further.

My time in Osaka was incredible and I would like tothank all of the people that contributed to making
it such a wonder ful time. I will never forget thehospitality and openness of the people there. In
particular I would like to thank my contact person,
Mr Yusuke Kanda and the whole team from thetransportation department of Oriental Consultants
Kansai ofﬁce.
I would also like to thank the AJCE for being suchgracious hosts of YPEP 2007.

My time spent working in the transportation
department in Osaka and the generosity of thepeople working there gave me a wonderful insight
into Japanese culture. The Osaka area is well known
throughout the nation as being the "Kitchen of
Japan" and the food and drink from the area wereamazing. Many traditional foods I had not tried
before and simply aren’t available in Australia. The
local specialties of Takoyaki and Okonomoyaki were14

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AJCE Activity 2007

Young Professional Exchange Program 2007
ReportKate Alexander
Maunsell Australia

The Young Professionals Exchange Program (YPEP)
2007 provided me with an opportunity to exchange
and compare ideas regarding engineering problems,
methods and solutions between Japanese andAustralian engineers, as well as between different
engineering disciplines. Oriental Consultants andMs Watatsu planned an interesting training programthat enabled me to experience many elements of
their business. As a young engineer, the YPEP wasan invaluable opportunity for me to experience andunderstand the roles of various engineering disciplines
from many senior and knowledgeable professionals.

wastewater to a quality for reuse. The recycled water
is provided to various Shinjuku buildings by secondary
infrastructure for uses such as ﬂushing toilets.
In addition to observing and discussing projects,
I was also able to experience working in Oriental
Consultants Office. Oriental Consultants requested
that I assist with one of their projects by undertaking
research into greenhouse gas emission reduction
initiatives around the world, and the greenhouse gas
emission reduction policies of various governments
post the expiry of the current phase of the Kyoto
Protocol in 2012. This research enabled me to better
understand the issue of greenhouse gas emissions
reductions from an international perspective.

D u r i n g t h e p ro g r a m , I w a s b a s e d i n O r i e n t a l
Consultants’ Tokyo Office. I observed infrastructure
and projects in areas including transportation, urban
environment, urban planning and landscape. Someof the project highlights that I observed included:◆ Ohashi Junction: a large intersection underconstruction in Shibuya, to connect a new tunnel tothe metropolitan Route 3 expressway bridge deck.
As the intersection is located close to a residentialarea, noise reduction techniques were required
including fully enclosing the intersection, additional
noise barriers and noise-reducing pavement.
◆ Itabashi Yamato-Cho intersection: Approximately
240,000 vehicles pass through this intersection
each day. The intersection has two overpasses,
was surrounded by buildings, resulting in little air
movement and poor air quality. Measures for
improving air quality included jet fans (normallyused in tunnels) to move air from the intersection
upward, planting of vegetation in the road reserveand demolishing one of the buildings to create avegetated open space and increase air movement.
◆ Shinjuku Water Recycling Plant: While this is not a
project that Oriental Consultants is involved in, theykindly arranged for me to visit the plant information
center. The plant treats combined stormwater and

AJCE organised a trip to Kyoto and Nara for those
involved in the program to visit culturally significant
sites and experience traditional Japanese cuisine andaccommodation. This visit enabled the Japaneseand Australian engineers to exchange ideas andlearn more about the similarities and differences
between Japanese and Australian culture.
I would like to thank Oriental Consultants, AJCE and
ACEA for making this opportunity possible. I believethat this program has enhanced my professional
development and has been an invaluable
experience. I look forward to sharing my experienceswith my company, Maunsell Australia.

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AJCE Activity 2007

YPEP 2007 REPORTNathan Scott
OPUS QANTEC McWILLIAM

Participation in the Young Professional Exchange
Program promised opportunity; opportunity to travel
to a place I had never been before, to experience a
culture I had not known and work in an environment
totally foreign to me.
Looking back on my three weeks in Japan, I see
that as a result of my involvement I have realised
all of these benefits... but I have also benefited inother ways that I would not have anticipated. As aprofessional engineer, the most compelling beneﬁt of
YPEP07 can be summarised in one word – inspiration.
Over these past three weeks, I have had opportunity
to work alongside a group of engineers who haveachieved some remarkable feats of engineering.
An example of the calibre of engineers that I had
opportunity to meet with is found in the case of the
Akashi Strait Bridge. On this project, engineers frommy host company Chodai Co Ltd designed a bridgewith a centre span of 1,991m. This bridge is not only
the longest span suspension bridge in the world; itis also the tallest (and most expensive) suspension
bridge in the world.
Walking the streets of Tokyo, Nagoya and Kyoto
I saw buildings and bridges that stretched myunderstanding of what I considered possible in
the world of structural engineering. Different use

of materials and construction techniques havechallenged me to re-evaluate my own perceived
limitations and think expansively and more creatively
about the way I approach structural design.
The cultural experience afforded by YPEP07 has also
been invaluable. Experiencing Japanese life as amember of the local community (albeit temporary) isa rare opportunity. I have found that the best way tounderstand a culture is to become a part of it. While
the Japanese culture is very different to the Australianculture, we were able to ﬁnd much common ground.
At all times I found my hosts and the community atlarge to be extremely welcoming, hospitable, friendly
and possessing a great sense of humour.
In addition to experiencing the Japanese culture
generally, my time at Chodai Co Ltd gave me
opportunity to experience the Japanese working
culture. The team at Chodai Co Ltd were highly
skilled, dedicated and focussed; something that I
understand is a hallmark of Japanese Consulting
Engineering ﬁrms. As far as the working culture wasconcerned, I observed that while long hours wereroutine, the office environment was outwardly stressfree and quiet. Office structure reflected a highlyorganised company divided into a number of
specialities with clearly defined responsibilities andhierarchies in place.
I expect that the full benefit of my three weeks inJapan will be revealed in the coming months andyears of my career as a professional engineer.
I intend to approach my career with a newperspective as a result of my broader world view. I
also hope to maintain the professional and personal
contacts that I have established during YPEP07.
As I prepare to return to Australia, I am grateful to
my company Opus Qantec McWilliam, my hostcompany Chodai Co Ltd, and to AJCE and ACEA for
the opportunity to participate in this program.

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AJCE Activity 2007

Young Professionals Exchange Programme (YPEP)Tokyo October 2007
Robert Spenceley
Simpson Kotzman

Introduction

to be shown around many projects both completed
and in progress, with services designed by PTM. Sitevisits included the following:◆ ﬁtout at the new Daimaru building adjacent Tokyo
Station for a bank client;◆ refurbishment of mechanical equipment at Kamata
Toky
ōky
¯ ū
¯ Plaza;◆ refurbishment of office building (including
specialised communications room services) for abank client in Ogikubo;◆ completed (but not yet fully operational) slurry
thermal storage system at the Kawasaki Azalea
Station Building;◆ partly constructed, partially ﬁt out Marunouchi (MoriTrust) Building, also adjacent Tokyo Station;◆ completed ice thermal storage plant at T ōkai¯
University, Isehara;◆ guided tour of Shinjuku District Heating and Cooling
Plant (largest in the world, services not by PTM).
Each site visit was preceded by a thorough briefing
session in the office whereby I was introduced tothe types of systems employed for the project, andshown actual calculation data used to arrive at thesolutions.

The 2007 AJCE/ACEA Young Professionals Exchange
Programme began on Friday 12 October 2007,
with a welcoming ceremony and presentations/introductions at the offices of Oriental Consultants,
Tokyo. I was one of six engineers selected from
Australia who participated in this programme. I am
employed as a mechanical engineer by Melbourne
Australia based consulting engineering practice,
Simpson Kotzman Pty. Ltd. My employer specialises
in building services, and I was fortunate to behosted in Tokyo by Morimura Sekkei (also known
as P.T. Morimura & Associates (PTM)), who provide
virtually the same type of service to clients as we doin Australia. PTM with approximately 80 personnel,
are larger than Simpson Kotzman which has
approximately 40.

Training
People at PTM were extremely warm and welcoming,
and went (often a long way) out of their way toaccommodate me, in introducing me to theirprojects and demonstrating how business waspractised at their company. I was fortunate enough

Various contrasts between Australian and Japanese
consulting practices became apparent throughout
my stay, though they were certainly subtle in theindustry in which I had my training. While in Australia
we tend to choose equipment and build systems
based on previous projects similar in nature, it seems
that PTM place a signiﬁcant emphasis on the design
stage of their projects.
The result of this appears to be system designs thatare more closely suited to the application than their
Australian equivalents, and systems that are often
more energy efﬁcient. It is not to say that we pay no
attention to design in Australia; indeed at Simpson

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AJCE Activity 2007
Kotzman we produce many projects where systems
are carefully designed. However, my observations
about design suggest a necessity in Japan to consider
energy efﬁciency in a manner that (presumably due
to our lower cost of energy) in Australia we are only
more recently coming to appreciate. The building
industry in Japan certainly seems to suggest that inAustralia at present we’re playing catch-up with therest of the world regarding energy consumption.

of work hours either, with lunch times, dinners andnomikai all part of the generous hospitality. Part of the
programme included a sojourn to Kyoto and Nara on
our ﬁnal full weekend, which meant that fortunately
we didn’t miss out on seeing (albeit briefly) at least
some elements of traditional Japanese culture.

Acknowledgment
I would like to thank all involved with my stay inJapan, for a thoroughly enjoyable and worthwhile
experience: staff at ACEA and AJCE ensured ourprogramme ran very smoothly, and I wish to thank
PTM for the time and effort they invested in my staywith them. I would especially like to thank the people
who went to so much effort helping me understandtheir projects, and showing me around site, as well as
my host for her much appreciated efforts organisingboth my cultural and technical experience at PTM.

Based on my limited experience with meetings at
PTM, consulting in Japan appears to involve more
frequent meetings with clients than we might haveat Simpson Kotzman. An upside of this is obviouslythat projects can be more closely controlled atearlier stages of development, saving potentiallycostly errors or omissions from discovery later down
the track. However the result of this is that staff in
the industry are attending meetings during normal
working hours, meaning design work takes placeoutside normal office hours – and once again, thisdesign work is often more detailed than would bestandard practice in Australia. Staff at PTM werecertainly very hard workers, and their attention todetail really showed through in the quality of theirwork.

CultureA homestay was organised for a weekend for me,
which my homestay host ensured was both fun
and interesting. And PTM staff went to great efforts
to make sure I wasn’t left to my own resources out

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