JAEE NEWSLETTER, December 2014 Vol. 3, Number 4

EVENT REPORT
Report on the 14th Japan Earthquake Engineering Symposium:
Successful Knowledge Sharing with Trans-disciplinary and Cross-border Participants
Masayuki Kohiyama (Keio University)
Chairman of Information and Communication Committee of JAEE, Member of International Committee of JAEE
The 14th Japan Earthquake Engineering Symposium (14JEES) was held at the Makuhari
Messe International Convention Complex in Chiba, Japan from December 4–6, 2014. The
Japan Earthquake Engineering Symposium is held once every four years, two years after
one World Conference on Earthquake Engineering and two years before the next, on analternating schedule. The 14JEES was organized by ten Japanese academic societies
specializing in earthquake engineering, seismology, and disaster science, while the JAEE
served as its host association.
After the opening speech by Chairman of the 14JEES Organizing Committee,
Prof. Fumio Yamazaki (Chiba University), participants delivered oral and poster
presentations to share information about their recent research achievements; thesegenerated much interest and discussion. Exhibitors from many research institutions andPhoto 1

private sector companies set up technical exhibition booths near the oral session rooms
and many participants asked questions about the advanced technology on display.
To attract international participants, the 14JEES offered three Special Sessions
and three International Sessions; the latter took the place of the usual, annual JAEE
international symposium. Each of these sessions attracted 50 to 80 participants andgenerated a lively discussion.
As speakers, the special sessions featured distinguished researchers from Chile,
Indonesia, New Zealand, Peru, Taiwan, Thailand, the US, and Japan (Photos 1, 2, and 3).
Special Session SS1-Thu, Tsunami disaster mitigation—lessons learned from the events inthe past 10 years, was chaired by Prof. Shunichi Koshimura (Tohoku University). Four ofthe presentations shared lessons and findings from the response, recovery, and restoration

Photo 2

processes of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami Disaster and 2011 Tohoku Earthquake andTsunami Disaster. SS2-Fri, New technology for disaster mitigation against futureearthquakes and tsunamis was chaired by Prof. Yoshihisa Maruyama (Chiba University),and featured presentations about the development and application of new technology toreduce the impact of gigantic earthquake and tsunami disasters. SS3-Fri, How were thelessons used for earthquake disaster mitigation? was chaired by Prof. Norio Maki (KyotoUniversity), and focused on the development of disaster resilient cities and communities.
The other International Sessions (Photo 4) were organized by Prof. Junji Kiyono(Kyoto University) and Prof. Masayuki Kohiyama (Keio University). The session chairs
were Dr. Ho Choi (University of Tokyo), Prof. Hitomi Murakami (YamaguchiUniversity), and the two organizers mentioned above. The presentation themes ranged

Photo 3very widely, from engineering seismology, geotechnical engineering, structuralengineering, to disaster science, such as experiment reports, analysis method proposals,numerical simulations, tsunami disaster reports, and advanced technology for early
warning systems. It was fascinating to learn about multilateral projects making use ofdisaster experience and lessons.
The symposium was very successful in gathering together many Japanese andinternational participants (720 participants in total). All who attended had an opportunity
to learn about state-of-the-art earthquake engineering projects, to share ideas andtechnology for reducing earthquake and tsunami disasters, and to extend their humannetwork for future collaboration.
Photo 47