No.34
August, 3 2015

No.27

President’s Greeting : JSCE’s Efforts to Nurture
the Next Generation of Civil Engineers

Noriaki HIROSE
JSCE 103rd President

JSCE celebrated its 100th anniversary last year, and held9) Enhance communication and cooperation acrossa celebration ceremony and a wide range of events arounddisciplinary and organizational boundaries so as to deal

the country. JSCE headquarters cooperated with its

with diverse and complex infrastructure development

branch offices to organize those events and gathered10) Strengthen cooperation among activities within JSCE,

momentum among the entire JSCE community. In theensure the involvement of people of diverse background,meantime, JSCE drew up the mid-term action plan “JSCEand encourage local level activities.

2015”, in which “Key Mid-term Targets” and ten “KeyChallenges” were prioritized for the next five years. The
main points of the ten key challenges are as follows:
1) Develop a sustainable infrastructure through building
disaster-resilient national land2)

Integrate

knowledge

andtechnologies

ofcivilengineering to handle the accident at the Fukushima No.
1 Nuclear Power Plant
3) Undertake strategic life extension, renewal andreplacement of aging infrastructures
4) Generate effective responses to environmental andGreeting form Mr. Noriaki HIROSE JSCE 103rd

energy issues at the global level5) Concentrate civil engineering technologies to run local

President

communities and re-design urban structures in theaging society with a declining birthrate

While we have started working on some of these6) Nurture the next generation of civil engineers

challenges, we will set up main actors for each challenge

7) Promote the transfer of civil engineering technologyunder their action plan. Focusing on the key challenges, asthat has been developed in Japan globally and enhance

the first-year goal, we will take action by building

contribution

systematic progress monitoring to follow each action’stoinfrastructuredevelopmentindeveloping and emerging countries

progress. In taking action, we will invite engineers from8) Increase public knowledge and understanding ofdiverse backgrounds, particularly giving opportunity toinfrastructure development by promoting information

female and young engineers, to join the activities. It is ourdissemination and communication with the public

hope that working with these people will make positive

IAC News No.34,Aug.3 2015

contributions to the development of the next generation ofis the ACECC’s major meeting, which is held every threecivilyears. The 8th CECAR has been scheduled for 2019 inengineers.

Passing

down

theknowledge

andexperience of our senior and seasoned professionals to theJapan.

JSCEwillenhancecommunication

membersocieties,

civil

among

next generation will provide a strong drive to keep moving

ACECC’sforward to meet key challenges.

researchers in the Asian region through the preparation ofengineers,andthe 8th CECAR and vitalization of the Technical
JSCE works with Asian Civil Engineering Coordinating

Committees (TCs) activities of ACECC.

Council (ACECC) as part of its international activities.

Thank you.

Civil Engineering Conference in the Asia Region (CECAR)

Pursuing higher studies in Japan:
International student’s experience

Parmeshwar UDMALE
University of Yamanashi

I am an Indian student pursuing my Doctor ofEngineering in Integrated River Basin Management(IRBM) at International Research Centre for River Basin
Environment (ICRE) - University of Yamanashi (UY),
Japan for the period of 2012-2015. I’ve often heard about
Japanese products and technology since my childhood andnever imagined that I could be studying in Japan. But
thankstotheMEXT(Monbukagakusho)foranopportunity to pursue doctoral degree in Japan.
Japan- The land of rising Sun has blessed with natural
beauty which is at its peak during spring season. The
clean roads, efficient waste disposal system, best examples

Hijiri-ushi (Grand Ox) used to weaken the flow of theriver is an excellent example of river erosion control.

of water supply and sanitation, landscape planning, andWhile expressing my feelings about Japanese higher

no power cuts etc. makes me feel amazing in Japan. The

education, I can say that very friendly relation exists

punctuality of rail service in Japan has its own class. The

between professors and students. However the professors

average delay for train is less than a minute, which

follow the strict timeline of plans and expect theirimpresses me the most. Being an earthquake prone

students to follow the same. Professors are very kind andcountry, Japan has established its own standard in terms

always ready to help international students to live aof building structures and designs. I never felt unsafe

comfortable life in UY. There is no language barrier while

about the risk of earthquake and timely participate inpursuing your academic life at UY; however you should

earthquake as well as fire disaster drills.

know a little Japanese for communication outside your

IAC News No.34,Aug.3 2015

academic life. For the same, the International Student

In addition to the coursework, I am very glad to learn

Centre at UY offers Japanese language education,

morals and ethics in publications while working as aextendingandstudent of Assoc. Prof. Yutaka ICHIKAWA (currentconsultation. The centre also organizes various events likeaffiliation- Kyoto University) and Assoc. Prof. Hiroshi

spring parties, festivals, tours to historical places etc. toISHIDAIRA. During my study, I got inspiration and fullpromotesupport from them to join national and international

intostudy

culturalsupport,exchange

lifeguidance,amongstinternationalstudents.

conferences (IPWG 2013-New Delhi, India; JSCE 2014,
Kobe-Japan; WWOSC2014-Montreal, Canada; icDrought

My transition from a student life to a researcher is taking

2015-Valencia, Spain) and internship - training courses

place at ICRE, UY. The ICRE has 5 sub-divisions namely(Internship 2014-UON,

Hydro-engineering,&2014-Tsukuba, Japan). Participation in these activities

treatment, Regional planning and Health risk division

helped me to improve my technical expertise, to get

considering each component of IRBM. The centre not only

familiar

has its own curriculum (classroom lectures, weekly

strengthened my collaboration with expertise within myseminars, laboratory experiments and field visits etc.) but

research field.

Waterquality,

Microbiology

withNewcastle,

worldwideresearch

Australia;

IPWG

activities,andalso organizes timely guest lectures from expertise. For
example, an interactive lecture on “What does aIn short, I can say that I am fortunate to study for adevelopment

Shigeyuki

doctorate in engineering in Japan and having the best

MATSUMOTO (Water Resource Management, JICA) etc.

time in my life in UY. After completing the a doctoral

The main purpose of these kinds of activities is to create

program, I hope to work either in Japan or as a research

problem-solving abilities amongst the students. Centre

project counterpart of a Japanese university while sharing

invites international faculties and guest lecturers tofuture collaborative research projects.

workerthink?"

byMr.

present their recent work which helps students to learn
things from international point of view and promotes【Footnote】

international collaboration and research activities in・MEXT：Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science

foreign countries like current 5 years SATREPS project in
Nepal led by Prof. Futaba KAZAMA.

and Technology・IPWG：International Precipitation Working Group・WWOSC：The World Weather Open Science Conference

I present the results of group work on “What does adevelopment worker think?" in a lecture delivered by Mr.
Shigeyuki MATSUMOTO (Water Resource Management,JICA)

IAC News No.34,Aug.3 2015

Students involve in group works in a lecture delivered byProf. Yoko AIHARA ( Kobe City College of Nursing)International Exchange Activities of theConstruction Management Committee
Katsuji FUKUMOTO, Chair
JSCE Construction Management Committee
With the aim to promote active international exchange

To date, the main activity has been hosting overseas joint

activities within the JSCE Construction Management

seminars. Three seminars have been held in Indonesia

Committee,Ozawa(FY 2011, 2012, and 2013) and in Vietnam (FY 2012, 2013,(University of Tokyo Graduate School), set up a permanentand 2014). The first seminars in both countries focused oninternational collaboration project subcommittee in 2010.

reporting the current state of general matters regarding

The committee under the current organization hasconstruction management. Over time, the agenda shifted

maintained

to quality management techniques and quality assurance

theaformer

policyChair,

that

Kazumasa

considersinternational

exchanges to be an essential activity.

systems, areas in which Japan is strong. The Japaneseside described the effectiveness and efficiency of theWhen the subcommittee was established, the committee

implementation system for public projects and works indebated the themes to pursue and narrowed them down tothe postwar era. At the same time, Japan also honestly

two major themes: 1) What are Japan’s advantages? and 2)

addressed the challenges and difficulties concerning theWhat is required of Japan? Examples of the former

old implementation method in the transition stage. In

included technology, specifications, systems, sincerity andresponse, administrative officials from the countries

honesty, and philosophy of harmony. Examples of thefrankly disclosed their current problems and solutions.

latter included total management, participation by

This sincere and open sharing of information and opinions

younger generations, the introduction and mastery of new

may be one of the factors that have maintained thebusiness approaches, and dissemination of information in

relationships between Japan and both countries.

English. Through discussions of these items, the following
four policies were established: a) host international

In the future, we plan to hold similar joint seminars insymposiums, b) hold overseas joint seminars, c) study theother countries and expand the activities in other fields.

creation of opportunities to inspire Japanese young

I’d like to express our appreciation for the warm support

engineers to participate, and d) establish a network ofand cooperation that the JSCE has extended in hosting ofoverseas young engineers (and students) residing inthese joint seminars.

Japan.

Thank you.

Prof. Ozawa, Chair of Construction
Committee answers questions.
IAC News No.34,Aug.3 2015

ManagementThe speakers and staff members of the joint seminar inJakarta, 2011 are taken a photo together.

What’s Happening

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Updates・The summary of feature articles in the JSCE Magazine is available on
the JSCE website.
http://www.jsce-int.org/pub/magazine
・Concrete Committee International Newsletter No. 42
http://www.jsce.or.jp/committee/concrete/e/newsletter/Newsletter.htm
・Journal of JSCE
The Journal of JSCE is the collection of research papers which canbe viewed on the JSCE website.
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IAC News No.34,Aug.3 2015

Editor’s postscriptA few days ago the Prime Minister stated that the government would
aim to cut the cost of the Tokyo’s new Olympic Stadium to about 180
billion yen. Before that, some other politician said the cost for thestadium would be “only 2500 million yen. The discussion and criticism
would continue for a while. I don’t deny that I like to see a newstadium, new facilities, and new roads. Is it really necessary to build asuper-modern, gigantic stadium, I’m wondering. Building the one
equipped with people-friendly facilities and devices which will bethanked and enjoyed next 50 years may be a worthwhile endeavor.
(Y.S.)[Comments and Questions] JSCE IAC: iac-news@jsce.or.jp
Please send us your feedback and comments to help us improve theIAC news. We look forward to hearing from you.