ICUS NEWSLETTER
International Center for Urban Safety Engineering

Institute of Industrial Science
The University of Tokyo

VOLUME 5 NUMBER 1
APRIL-JUNE 2005

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering

FIRE AND DISASTER MANAGEMENT AGENCY
ACTIVITIES IN 2004
AND AN APPROACH TO THE FUTURE
By
Shogo HAYASHI*
Large-scale disasters in 2004
and response activities by the Fireand Disaster Management Agency(FDMA) of the Ministry ofInternal Affairs and Communications as well as FDMA futureplans are reported in this article.
With regard to the existing fire
defense situations in Japan, allc i t i e s , t ow n s a n d v i l l a g e s

Large-scale disasters in 2004

(hereafter referred to as
municipalities) take administrative
responsibility for their own fire
defense activities.
The FDMA is a government
agency which manages f ire
defense organizations in all partsof the country. The FDMA, as anational organization, is in chargeof f ire f ighting and emergency

medical and rescue services as
disaster preparedness and f irst
response for emergency under theassumption of damage caused bysevere earthquakes and floods.
DISASTERS – 2004
The year of 2004 wasremarkable for a number of natural
catastrophes like torrential rains

A glimpse of the activities at Fire, Disaster and Risk Management Centerpage 2and frequent typhoons that had not
struck in recent years. Earthquake
also showed up its ugly face.
About three to six typhoons
affect the Japanese landmass eachyear. However, the islands wereaffected by ten or more of themin 2004.
Ty p h o o n n u m b e r 2 3 i nparticular brought about severe
damage killing 95 people in
Toyooka, Hyogo Prefecture.
Japan is usually prepared fordisasters which occur due to 40-50
m m o f r a i n p e r h o u r. S eve r etorrential rains exceeding 100 mm
per hour affected the Niigata,
Fukushima and Fukui Prefecturesin July 2004.
Many earthquakes have rocked
Japan since last decade. The
earthquake which rocked Chuetsu
district in Niigata Prefecture on
October 23rd left a strong
impression in particular (see ICUS
Newsletter, Special Issue 2005).
The occurrence of frequent
earthquakes is not a phenomenon
specific to the last year. Japan is
now in an extended period whenearthquakes will frequently occur.
COUNTERMEASURESBY THE FDMA
The Fire, Disaster and Risk
Management Center, establishedwithin the FDMA, is equippedwith systems for analyzing
pictures transmitted fromhelicopters as well as for checking
responses by the FDMA. This
enables the advance units to besent forward to specific locations
damaged by hazards in any
emergency.
Last year, the emergency fire
response teams were dispatched todisaster-struck areas four times;
namely to Niigata, Fukushima,
Fukui and Hyogo Prefectures, andf inally to Chuetsu, Niigata
Prefecture.
The members sent from eachprefectural f ire defense
headquarters to the areas damagedby the 1995 Kobe Earthquake met
with various problems. By lettingthese problems be a lesson,
Emergency Fire Response Teams
were established in 1995 with a

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 5, No. 1

Action plan of Emergency Fire Response Team

Rescue operation by Emergency Fire Response Teamview to prepare for conditions
requiring human aid in eachprefecture. The Fire Organization
Law was revised in June, 2003 andin the April 2004, this law wasformally enforced.
The International Rescue Team
(IRT) of Japan was one of the firstteams to ar rive at some of theareas struck by tsunami occurringin the Indian Ocean (see ICUS
Newsletter, Vol.4, No.4, 2004) andcarried out an invaluable numberof first aid and rescue operations.
On the 28th of December 2004,
over 80 persons in all including
f i r e a n d e m e rg e n cy s e r v i c e s
personnel medical staff and police
personnel were dispatched. The
relief work of the Japanese rescue
team was highly appreciated andm a d e h e a d l i n e s w h i c h we r ereported by the CNN and BBC at
t h e e n d o f t h e ye a r. J a p a n i sequipped with countermeasuresystems against disasters and cancontribute towards relief in casesuch a disaster occurs in Asia orsurrounding areas.
CHANGING CONDITIONS
Conditions with regard to firefighting and disaster preparedness
are continuously changing.
First, the occurrence of largescale disasters is indeed a matterof great concern.
Second, the law concerning themeasures for protection of thepeople in armed attack situations
etc. was enacted in the Diet lastyear. Two situations are assumed
i n t h i s l aw ; o n e i n c a s e s o femergency where missiles are shot
into Japan by a hostile country or
infiltrators enter Japan. The otherone is for urgent countermeasuresagainst acts of terrorism.

page 3
Third, recently, in particular,industrial disasters have occurred
frequently. Therefore, companies
are required to complete andstrengthen their fire and disaster
preparedness systems.
The preparation of fire defense
systems in response to damage
caused by the above mentioned
matters must be forwarded fromthe national point of view withconsideration to international
cooperation. Based on this view, it
is very important that the fire anddisaster preparedness systems inmunicipalities need to be further
improved.
COUNTERMEASURESBY THE FDMA
FOR THE FUTURE
In order to strengthen thesystem for taking any initial action
as a national duty in response todisasters, an overall revision of thesystem of the Fire, Disaster andRisk Management Center was
made. The system was improvedt o b e a bl e t o t a ke a ny a c t i o nrequired even in case of complete
power failure or the destruction offacilities due to earthquakes andother hazards. The FDMA had
poor results with regard to
dispatching logistics and supportu n i t s l a s t y e a r. T h e F D M A
members lost no time in arriving
at areas damaged by hazards.
However, it could not be estimatedhow long teams would have to staythere. Hence, it is vital to improve
the logistics and support systems.
In response to the convening ofa World Fire Defense Agency
Commissioners Conference forstrengthening international
cooperation, the first conference
was held with representatives fromten countries. It was seen in thisconference that there are few
countries which have a nationalorganization such as the FDMA in
Japan. As can be recognized fromthe response to the great damagec a u s e d by t h e 2 0 0 4 S u m a t r aearthquake and tsunami, theinter national network forf ire f ighting and disaster
preparedness is urgently in needof strengthening.

Activity of International Rescue TeamThe most important problem
to be solved in the future is tostrengthen the systems linking themunicipalities. Firstly, it can bepointed out that systems forcommunicating satisfactorily withother cities, towns and villages ofJapan have yet to be established.
Secondly, there is a problem inthe preparation of widespreadadministrative radio installations
for disaster preparedness. Thirdly,
a reconnaissance helicopter canbe dispatched before taking
command of emergency disaster
response teams. Full command istaken after studying the images ofthe scene sent from the helicopter.
If necessary, support units can bedispatched. We are planning toprepare a system, in which a
portable earth station can receive
images via satellite, in all parts ofJapan. Four thly, over 60% of
disaster victims are elderly. Last
year, we recognized that regional
disaster prevention in acommunity is eventually mostimportant for rescuing elderly
persons living alone. Fifthly,municipalities are lagging behindbadly in taking ear thquake
proof ing measures for disasterprevention stations. Promotion
activities with regard to thisproblem have been carried out incooperation with the FDMA andI C U S , I I S , t h e U n ive r s i t y o f
Tokyo. Finally, with consideration
to the importance of a regional

disaster prevention system, aconcept of relief and refuge
stations has been proposed toregional bodies. At present, there
are about 24,000 primary schools
all over the country. Information
with regard to fire fighting andcrime prevention in ordinar ytimes is to be collected at empty
classrooms utilized as disastermanagement stations byconsidering a school district as
one unit area. These classrooms
can also be used to strengthen thedisaster preparedness capacity inthe school area while securing
regional safety in ordinary times.
These classrooms can be used as
relief and refuge stations where
information about safety can berelayed in the event of disasters.
We hope this plan of utilizing
unoccupied schools as disastermanagement stations will spreadthroughout the countr y in thelight of the aforementioned
projects.
The actions taken by the
FDMA as well as issues to be
dealt with in the future have been
described above. We will takefurther positive actions with av i ew o f s e c u r i n g t h e ove r a l lsafety of our country.
*ICUS Visiting Professor,
Commissioner of the FDMA,
Ministry of Internal Affairs andCommunications, Japan

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 5, No. 1

page 4

Guidelines for Promoting Seismic Retrofitof Critical Facilities for Disaster Management
Published by the FDMA and ICUS Collaboration
In the Mid Niigata Prefecture
Earthquake of M6.8, according to
the Japan Meteorological Agency(JMA), occurred on October 23rd
2004, four towns and village
offices suffered severe damage.
These were centered on theareas with seismic intensity of
JMA scale 6 or more, andemergency response activities wereseriously interrupted in operations
by their severe damage. Thesebuildings were constructed before
1981 when the Japanese seismic
design code was revised and were
designed based on the old code.
This earthquake damage made us
strongly feel the necessity andimportance for seismic retrofittingof the critical facilities for disastermanagement.
In response to such lessons,Fire and Disaster Management
Agency (FDMA) has justcompleted the guideline incollaboration with ICUS and manyarchitect offices and construction
c o m p a n i e s . T h i s e ff o r t h a s asignif icant meaning as the f irst
collaboration made by industry,
government and academic society.
Until now, many examples havebeen published related to theseismic retrof it of buildings,
however, this guideline has specificfeatures like providing information
to people who are involved in thelocal governments to understandthe importance of seismic retrofit
of critical facilities such as city or
town halls, school buildings, firestations which are expected to play
an important role in case ofdisaster. This guideline is designed
to make local government people
understand easily about key issues
such as basic judgment of seismic
capacity evaluation and effective
retrofit procedures, necessary cost,working time by the introduction of
actual examples of seismic
retrofitting.
Following is a table of contentsof this guideline.

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 5, No. 1

Critical facilities for disaster management

Role of the facility[CHAPTER-1]
Why is Seismic Retrofit Necessary
for Critical Facilities?
1-1 What is the current earthquake
risk in Japan?
1-2 What is a critical facility?
1-3 What level of retrofit is required?
1-4 What are the causes making
the retrofitting difficult?
1-5 What are the types of damages
to buildings?
1-6 What types of buildings arevulnerable to earthquake?
[CHAPTER-2]
Procedures for Seismic Retrofitting
2-1 What is seismic capacity
evaluation?
2-2 Preliminary screening toretrofitting – A flowchart
2-3 What should be investigated?
2-4 What is the output of seismic
capacity evaluation?
2-5 Cost and time for evaluation?
[CHAPTER-3]
Seismic Retrofitting Method andExamples:3-1 What is seismic retrofit?
3-2 Which method of retrof it isbetter?
3-3 Which is the popular retrof it
method?
3-4 Is there any external retrof it
method?
3-5 What is vibration control?
3-6 What is base isolation?
3-7 Model examples of seismic
retrof it.
3-8 List of practical examples ofretrof itted buildings.
I sincerely wish this guideline
will be widely used by many people
who are involved in the local
governments and enhance disastermitigation and contribute to thesafety of the country.
Prof. Y. Nakano, IIS provided his
valuable advice for the above project.
(by Reiko Amano,
Visiting Professor, ICUS
General Manager of Kajima Corp.)page 5

Seconded to Asian Institute of Technology
Several months have alreadypassed since I have been seconded
to Asian Institute of Technology(AIT), located in the suburb of
Bangkok, Thailand. When I
ar rived, January semester had
already started. I took over theclass shared with another
instr uctor, and f inished f inal
examination by early May. Because
AIT has a semester system, theperiod from early May to earlyAugust is summer vacation forstudents. They seem to enjoy
studying and staying at their home.
I'm seconded to Remote
Sensing and GIS Field of Study,
School of Advance Technology as
an expert of Japan International
C o o p e r a t i o n A g e n cy ( J I C A ) .
Dispatch of JICA experts to AIT
by Japanese government started in1969. Experts for long-term, i.e.
more than six months, amount to
118 persons. Most of the experts
have been seconded to departments
related to civil engineering as they
have expertise in the same field. At
present, AIT has only two JICAe x p e r t s . To d a t e , J a p a n h a scontributed g reatly to theimprovement of AIT, especially inthe f ields of civil engineering.
H owev e r, J a p a n s t a r t e d t owithdraw support to AIT graduallya s we l l a s U n i t e d S t a t e s a n d
G e r m a n y, w h i c h u s e d t o b eimportant supporters for AIT.
Other than JICA experts, there areother Japanese faculty members,
f o u r d i r e c t ly h i r e d a n d t h r e e
seconded by other institutes ofJapan.
Regarding remote sensing, AIT
has continued an outstanding
position among the Southeast
Asian countries. AIT has a"Geoinformatics
Center"consisting of two divisions. One ofthem is "Asian Center for
Researches of Remote Sensing", aresearch-oriented division. The
other is "GIS Application Center( G AC ) " , a t r a i n i n g - o r i e n t e ddivision. Geoinformatics Centerhas two antennas for receiving
satellite data, suppor ted by

Institute of Industrial Science(IIS), The University of Tokyo.
The received data are processedand distributed to IIS under several
joint projects between AIT and IIS.
I a m wo r k i n g a t t h e G e o informatics Center most of thetimes. As staffs are from many
countries, e.g. Thailand, Vietnam,
India or Sri Lanka, I enjoy talking
and sharing a considerable amountof information with them.
From a research viewpoint, I've
started fundamental researches
related to disaster mitigation. This
year, Thailand had severe drought
in almost all of provinces. I citesome articles from Bangkok Post,
an English newspaper published in
Thailand.
Sugarcane plantations coveringover 60,000 rai (1 rai=1600 square
meters) in three districts ofSuphan Buri are dying as watersupply from the local Kra Seaw
dam stopped for the f irst timeyesterday due to severe drought.
Agricultural areas in Doembang
Nangbuat, Nong Yasai and Sam
Chuk districts also depend on
water from the earth dam, which islocated in Dan Chang district andhas a capacity for storing 240
million cubic metres of water. The
4.25-km-long dam blocks the Nam
Seaw River which flows from
Uthai Thani. Only 20 million cubic
metres now remains in its reservoir
so the dam must stop discharging
water for cultivation and keep thewater to maintain its own physicalcondition, according to Thongthos
Nokchan, the dam's irrigation andmaintenance chief (March 21).
T h e n u m b e r o f p r ov i n c e ssuffering from drought has been
reduced from 72 to 16 by rainmaking operations, Agriculture
and Cooperatives Minister Sudarat
Keyuraphan said. Of these only
four or five, including Chumphon
and Surat Thani, are now badly
affected as there is insuff icientwater for agricultural use. Cloudseeding would now focus on theseareas. A total of 1,070 seedingflights to relieve the dry spell weremade from nine rain-making
centres from March 15 to April 9.
On April 9 alone, rain wasreported in 30 provinces: eight in
the North, six in the Central Plain,seven in the Northeast and nine in
the South (April 11).
Remote sensing can be ap owe r f u l t o o l f o r d r o u g h t
monitoring because onset ofdrought is gradual and can bedetected by long-term monitoring.
In order to develop a droughtmonitoring system, I started withfield measurements to model thephenomenon on the surface fromremotely sensed data. Finally, I'dlike to contribute to the mitigationof such severe disasters throughremote sensing technique for twoyear stay in Thailand.
(by Junichi Susaki)

Drying dam in Nakhon
Ratchasima province(Upper: April 23, Lower: June 11, 2005)

Seeding into dry paddy fields in
Buri Ram province. Farmers are
eager for rain. (June 12, 2005)

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 5, No. 1

page 6

ICUS PARTICIPATION – IIS OPEN HOUSEThe Institute of Industrial Science
conducted the OPEN HOUSE during
June 2-3, 2005. The various
Departments and their respective
Laboratories are open for public
viewing during this time. ICUS
participated in the same byexplaining its numerous activities inboth Japanese and English. The topic
of focus for ICUS was “Towards
Safer and Securer Built Environment
in Mega Cities in Asia.” About 270
People visited ICUS this year.
Under the umbrella of the ICUS
title, the research titles of ICUS
members were as follows:
1) Prof. Taketo Uomoto:-Development of Technologies for

Increasing Durability of Concrete
Structures
2) Prof. Kimiro Meguro:-Today’s Issues of Japanese
Disaster Countermeasures: Ten
Years after the Kobe Earthquake3) Dr. Taikan Oki- Re-Spotlight on Flood Disaster
Mr. Chuko Hayakawa, a member of the4) Dr. Ryozo Ooka:
House of Representatives, visiting ICUS
-Sustainable Urban Design with
CFD Simulation-Diffusion of Contaminants in Urban
Area and Natural Ventilation5) Dr. Yoshitaka Kato:-Development of MaintenanceManagement System for Existing
Concrete Structures(by M. Yoshimura)
Lecture for high school students

ICUS New Staff
Dr. Taikan Oki has joined ICUS
since April 1 2005 as Associate
Professor. Trained in Civil
Engineering at the University ofTokyo, Dr. Oki now r uns theLaboratory for Hydrology and Water
Resources Engineering at the Instituteof Industrial Science, the University ofTokyo. He is assigned to the Council
for Science and Technology Policy,
Cabinet Office of Japan, to support
policy making, prioritization andevaluation of measures for scienceand technology in Japan, particularly
to support the development of thethird master plan of national scienceand technology development from2006 to 2010. He has served as a leadauthor for the IPCC Four thAssessment Report as well as acontributing author for the UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.
Dr. Oki was a visiting scientist at theNASA/ Goddard Space Flight Centerfor 1995-1997, and he spent a few
years at the Research Institute of
Humanity and Nature in Kyoto. He
was one of the associate editors of the
JGR- Atmospheres of the American
Geophysical Union. Dr. Oki iscurrently chairing the IAHS Hydrology

System Project (GWSP), and Global
Soil Wetness Project (GSWP). His
research interests include: global waterbalance and hydrologic cycle; world
water resources assessment and thevirtual water trade, impacts of climatechange on hydrological extremes andwater resources managements, landatmosphere interaction and its
modeling; inter-annual variation of
global climate and the Asianmonsoon; application of remotesensing in hydrology.
(by T. Uomoto)Dr. Taikan Oki
2020 Working Group, and he was thewinner of the Tison Award of the
IAHS in 2003. He is a science panel
member of a few international
research projects, such as GEWEXAsian Monsoon Experiment (GAME),
Global Land Atmosphere System
Studies (GLASS), Global Water

ICUS welcomes
Dr. Rashmi Iyengar,
who joined ICUS from
April 2005 to assist in
the preparation of
ICUS publications.
Prior to joining ICUS, Dr. Rashmi
she completed her training to be a
medical doctor from India.

ICUS Activities

AwardsWork- shop” at Iguassu Falls
・Prof. Uomoto and Dr. Kato visited(April 1-11).
AIT, Thailand for a meeting at
・Prof. Ooka attended the “Global
RNUS (May 2-4).
Advances in Heat Pump
・Prof. Meguro attended the “EarthTechnology Applications andquake Summit” at Lake Tahoe, USA.
Markets” at Las Vegas, USA(April 24-27), and “International( M a y 3 0 - Ju n e 4 ) , a n d t h e
Symposium on Floods in“ASHRAE Annual Meeting” at
Coastal Cities under Climate
Denver, USA (June 25-30).
C h a n ge Conditions” at AIT,・Prof. Dutta attended the “7thBangkok, Thailand (June 24-26).
IAHS Scientific Assembly” at・Prof. Oki attended the “IAHS
Iguassu Falls (April 5-12).
Hydro- logy 2020 Working Group

Prof. Oki won the Environmental Award at the Annual
Meeting of Japan Society of Civil
Engineers in May.
Prof. Ooka won the Technology Promotion Award at theSociety of Heating AirConditioning and SanitaryEngineers of Japan Standard inMay.

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 5, No. 1

page 7

INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON FLOODSIN COASTAL CITIESUNDER CLIMATE CHANGE CONDITIONSThe Regional Network office for
Urban Safety (RNUS) organized aninternational symposium on “Floods
in Coastal Cities under Climate
Change Conditions” during 23-25
June 2005 at the Asian Institute of
Te c h n o l og y ( A I T ) , B a n g ko k ,Thailand. The symposium wassponsored by the Asia Pacif ic
N e t wo r k f o r G l o b a l C h a n g e
Research (APN) under a year-longp r o j e c t . T h e s y m p o s i u m wa s
attended by 45 participants mainly
from South and South-east Asian
countries and Japan including
academicians, researchers, policy
makers and practitioners.
After a brief opening ceremony,the symposium was started with akeynote speech on Flood Control
Systems in Bangkok by the Director
General of Bangkok Metropolitan
Administration, Mr. Teeradej
Tangpraprutgul. In his presentation,
Mr. Tangpraprutgul discussed about
the history of flood in Bangkok, themain causes behind it anddemonstrated the existing systems
for flood prevention and future plans.
T h e key n o t e s p e e c h wa s
followed by three technical sessions
on the 1st day. The first two sessions

witnessed the different country casestudies conducted by the key
collaborators of the APN Project,
followed by in-depth demonstrationof the respective country policy
issues and strategy. The countrycase-study reports were presented
from Thailand, Bangladesh, India,
Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Pakistan (inorder of presentation). Thesesessions was chaired by Dr. Mukand
S. Babel and Prof. Addala N Swamy
respectively. Dr. Uditha Ratnayake
a n d D r. K S R a j a n we r e t h erapporteurs respectively. The day
ended with a brainstorming session
where the day’s presentations werediscussed and chalked out thecomposition of the policy guidelines.
The second day started with thecontinuation of the previous day’s
brainstorming on policy issues. Prof.
Ashim Das Gupta was the facilitatorof brainstorming session. The next
session of the day had the theme of
Climate Change Impacts chaired by
Prof. Tawatchai Tingsanchali. Thissession witnessed many different
researches conducted at The
University of Tokyo, AIT, Universiti
Sains Malaysia and Thammasat
University. The presenters revealed
their simulation and possible risks

due the climate change.
After lunch break, a technicaltour was arranged to the Bangkok
Metropolitan Administration(BMA). At BMA headquarter, theparticipants listened to a presentationon the Department of Drainage andSewerage and then visited the Krung
Kasem Pumpoing Station and Si
Praya Treatment Plant.
The third day started with thesession titled Tsunami and Coastal
Flooding chaired by Dr. Junichi
Susaki and rapporteur Dr. Yoshitaka
Kato. This session had someattention-grabbing
i nv i t e dpresentations by Prof. Kimiro
Meguro of The University of Tokyo,
Japan, Dr. Pennung Warnitchai, AIT,Dr. Srikantha Herath, UNU, Mr.
David Hastings of UNESCAP and
Mr. Ole Neilson from Geoscience
Australia also.
The symposium concluded withthe last brainstorming session
chaired by Dr. Mukand S. Babel.
This session outlined the policy
issues of the discussed countries anddeveloped a guideline for the policy
maker to combat the climate change
impacts and coastal flooding.
(by Dushmanta Dutta)

Some of the participants of the symposium on 23rd June before the Keynote speech

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 5, No. 1

page 8
Editor’s Note
The Sumatra earthquake
occurred about 6 months ago.
Although large natural disasters
have not occurred in Japan thisyear, man made disasters such as
terrorism, rail accidents haveoccurred at a global and local
levels, respectively. Hundred ormore people were killed when atrain (Fukuchiyama line) of the WestJapan Railway Company derailedon the 25th of April this year. ICUS
sent its heartfelt condolences.
We should be ready to executecountermeasures for the disasters
that may happen in future. This is
one of the missions of ICUS andsome of those activities are
introduced in this volume.
There are two kinds of factors
which cause severe damage to oursocial life. The first is a disasterthat momentarily causes severe
damage such as earthquake,tsunami, floods, etc. The other is adisaster that gradually effects. Whenthe damage is gradual, it is difficult
to address the same. For instance,
environmental destruction, urban
infrastructure ageing, etc. The former
is “heel drop” as a killer shot, thelatter is “low kick” that is sober
though cumulative damage is large.
An amateur (society) obviously pays
attention to the killer shot. On theother hand, the expert concentrates
on low kick. The editor’s research isin the field of maintenance of urban
infrastructures. It is classified fromthe above-mentioned classification
into "Countermeasure for low kick"
I was seconded to AIT in the
middle of May 2005. Weekdays are
spent in AIT whereas the weekends
are spent in a hotel in Bangkok.
Many buildings are being

International Center for Urban Safety Engineering, ICUS
Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo
4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan
Tel: (+81-3)5452-6472, Fax: (+81-3)5452-6476
E-mail:icus@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp
http://icus.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering

constructed rapidly in Bangkok until
midnight. It is very important to offer
facilities at the right time from theeconomic point of view. However, it
is a huge drawback that the qualityof the facilities decreases as a resultof the fast work. This was thesituation that Japan experienced
when the economic growth rate washigh. To solve this issue, it will costenormously. I sincerely wish
Thailand and other Asian countries
will not to be confronted with thesame problem as Japan had.
(by Y. Kato)PRINTED MATTER