Internship report of on-the-job training in Nippon Koei
Shinsuke Mogi
M1, Hanaoka Research Group
Department of International Development Engineering,
Graduate School of Science and Engineering
Tokyo Institute of Technology
1. Introduction
During my internship at Nippon Koei (NK) Company, Japanese company engaged inconsulting construction business, I received on-the-job training at NK Tokyo officeduring 2 –13August in 2010 (see Figure 1). In the Tokyo office, I worked as an intern atinPorts/Airports Group, Urban Development Department, Infrastructure Development
Division, Overseas Construction Administration of NK. Therefore, this report briefly
mentions that my experience and outcome of on-the-job training.
Table 1: internship schedule

2. Objectives of the internship
After graduation I would like to work in a consulting company. Therefore, I wanted toget familiar with the work of consultants. My objectives for the internship are to: (i)gain
comprehensive knowledge on how overseas projects are processed, planned andmanaged; (ii) understand the working environment in NK; and (iii) interact with some
professionals working in various sectors and know more about their work.

-1-3. Introduction to Nippon Koei
NK is a consulting company which undertakes a lot of projects and supervises civilconstruction work in Japan and overseas countries.
Figure 1 shows a flow chart of typical construction project which NK deals with. First ofall, after winning and/or receiving works from employer, NK makes a consultancy
contract with the employer. NK provides technical services to the employer andconducts studies to prepare project plan, design and specification. Additionally, NK
supervises contractors employed by the client. As project consultant NK job is to ensure
contractors carry out the construction work or supply equipments and materials basedon the project specifications and contract. Finally, citizens receive benefit for the project.

Figure 1.Flow chart of typical construction project
4. Activities
During the internship NK provided me with opportunities to be involved in thefollowing things:(i)

ASEAN Strategic Transport Plan (ASTP) 2011-2015(ii)

Participate in a coordination meeting(iii)

Interview professionals in NK.

Three things above are described as follows.

-2-4.1 ASTP 2011-2015
Figure 2 shows a structure of the ASTP. ASTP was being developed based on the vision,
objective and sectoral goals earlier defined by the ASEAN leaders. The transportation
field is divided into four groups: (i) road; (ii) air; (iii) maritime transport and (iv)transportation facilitation. In order to achieve each specific goal in each transportation
field, specific actions are being defined. Some objectives of ASTP are to identify strategic
actions to support the establishment of ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by 2015,
while others are to identify long-term vision of ASEAN transport cooperation beyond
2015.

Figure 2. Structure of ASTP
My supervisor Mr. Shuichi Kudo asked me to correct texts, figures, and tables on thedraft of ASTP. However, I couldn’t understand why the correction was necessary in somecases. Therefore, I strongly thought that more knowledge was required to understand
why I needed to make correction.

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4.2 Coordination meeting on ASTP
My supervisor gave me an opportunity to participate in a coordination meeting on ASTP
on 7 August. The participants in the meeting were divided into three teams: (i)consultant teams from NK, (ii) academic consultants from universities in Asia and (iii) aproject coordinator from Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA).
In the meeting, they discussed with each other to improve the draft of ASTP. During
and after the meeting ERIA asked the NK consultant team to make some changes in thedraft.
Through the meeting I thought that it was important to understand a vision which had
already been decided in an upper level plan before making a new big plan. During themeeting I saw the project coordinator from ERIA ask consultants of NK to modify someparts of the plan. It’s because those parts did not follow the vision previously shown inthe upper level plan. They inadvertently overlooked the correspondence between thevision in the upper level plan and several parts of ASTP. Finally, I learnt it wasnecessary to understand the meaning of upper plan until making the following plan.

4.3 Interview professionals in NK
I interviewed professionals in several sectors in NK about work in their sectors andtheir own experience. According to an expert, NK makes a contract with not only public
sector agencies but also private sector companies. Since NK expects that private sector
companies do more infrastructure projects in overseas countries, NK focuses on services
to them and sponsors, contractors. Figure 3 shows NK’s service domain when a project
owner is a private company. In the figure, each green colored area means role of NK.
When a sponsor invests in the owner, NK advises it in terms of technology. Additionally,NK works as a consultant for the owner and contractors.

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Figure 3. NK’s service domain

5. Lessons from the internshipFirst of all, I thought that consulting is a difficult work that requires much experience,wide and deep knowledge. It’s because I couldn’t make any comments while attending ameeting.
In addition, I was surprised that each professional has different background. Mysupervisor has joined NK after he had worked as the Japan Overseas Cooperation
Volunteer (JOCV). Another professional has worked in NK since he quitted aconstruction company. Still now, he joined the same project which he was involved withwhen he worked in the construction company.
Finally, the internship leaded me to conclude that I must acquire more knowledge andskills to understand transportation field through daily study and my research atgraduate school.

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