Apr. 1, 2014

Japan Society of Civil Engineers
International Activities Center

IAC News No. 18
Report on the International Symposium Series No. 1.
Professional Development and Education Program Group held InternationalSymposium Series No. 1: International Competitiveness of Construction
Industry and Business Strategy on February 12.

The Group planned thissymposium series as one of its activities which focused on strengthening
globally-capable human resources, assisting the Japanese constructionindustry to expand its business overseas, and increasing its international
competitiveness. The Group invited speakers from the US and Japanesecompanies which successful were doing business in Japan and overseas
respectively and listened to their discussion with 78 attendees from academia,industry, and public sectors.
The Symposium No. 1 welcomed Mr.

Masaru Noda
Professional Development&Education Program Gr.
LeaderTakehiko Miyazaki Vice President, Country Manager Japan, Overseas
Bechtel Incorporated as a speaker.

Mr. Miyazaki discussed futurebusiness strategies for internationalization with the examples ofEuropean and American firms which were expanding into overseas
markets, making comparisons with Japanese firms, and the skills,
attributes and abilities needed for Japanese engineers.

His

presentation was followed by a lively question-and-answer session.
Mr. Miyazaki delivers a speech.

In Part 2, Mr. Takaya Matsuoka, Associate Executive Officer, General
Manager of Engineering Division, JGC Corporation delivered a speech
as a representative of a Japanese firm which was expanding its
business globally. He discussed the path that the firm had taken in its
globalization process responding to changes in society over time, andhow it had set a goal and dealt with the challenges posed by thosechanges, using specific examples. The discussion attracted to theaudience many of who worked with the companies pursuinginternationalization for their operations.

Mr. Matsuoka talks to the audience.

This symposium was the first in a series of three symposia. The second symposium was held on Monday,March 12, having 2 invited speakers. Mr. Nawal K. Prinja of AMEC Co. and Mr. Hideki Sakaeda of AECOM,
and the third one on Monday, April 22. The Group hope that this symposium series will give useful clues theJapanese firms who are planning to the Int’l Education Group will carry out these activities to help members ofJapanese companies attempting to internationalize their business operations.
Thank you very much.

Philippines Section Report “The Forum on Structural Resilience to Earthquakes andTyphoons through Sustainable Civil Engineering”
JSCE IAC Philippines Section co-organized a forum with College ofEngineering (COE) of University of the Philippines (UP) and thePhilippine Institute of Civil Engineers (PICE) after the two majordisasters in the Philippines on 30th January 2014. The forum started
with the opening remarks by the dean of COE of UP and the head ofInstitute of Civil Engineering (ICE) of UP, followed by the messages
from the president of PICE and the president of JSCE. They
expressed their deep condolences and sympathies to the victims ofthe disasters, as well as their determination to strengtheninternational collaboration for the disaster management.

Welcome Remarks by the Dean of COE-UP

The forum consisted of two parts, the earthquake session and thetyphoon session. From JSCE, two interesting surveys werereported in this forum. One is "Reconnaissance of Highway Bridge
Damages due to the 2013 Bohol Earthquake in the Philippines" byMr. Tsukuda, a JICA expert dispatched from MLIT to DPWH
(Department of Public Works and Highway) in the earthquake
session. Mr. Tsukuda reported the reconnaissance of the bridge
damages by the earthquake in Bohol, and, based on the survey,Mr. Tsukuda delivers a presentation.

suggested some recommendations for seismic designs. In thissession, PHIVOLCS (Philippine Institute of Volcanology andSeismology), ICE of UP and PICE/ASEP (Association of Structural Engineers of the Philippines) alsopresented. They investigated the damages by the earthquake and suggested policy recommendations for
future earthquake preparation.
The typhoon session focused on the serious damages by the typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda. As the other reportfrom JSCE, Dr. Yasuda of Kyoto University, a member of the joint team of PICE and JSCE for the assessmentof the damage of the typhoon, presented "Report of JSCE-PICE Joint Survey on the Storm Surge Disaster
caused by Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda". This was a valuable assessment report on the storm surge damages.
NOAH (The Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards), PAGASA (Philippine Atmospheric Geophysicaland Astronomical Services Administration), PICE and ICE of UP also presented in the session. These
presentations reported their observations of the typhoons and their analyses of the serious damages mainly inthe Leyte Island.
More than one hundred people participated in this forum, and more than twenty of them were the Japaneseengineers working in the Philippines. There were active discussions including the audiences. The forum ended
with the remarks by Dr. Sigua, the head of the JSCE Philippines section.
【JSCE Int’l Philippine Group & JSCE Philippines section】

Activities of Vietnam Section
JSCE Vietnam Section is the latest addition to the International Section, which was established in 2009. I haveworked for the Section since its launch and noticed a few things that should be addressed. JSCE disseminates
unique, useful and valuable information to civil engineering professionals in and outside the country, and does
in English on a much smaller scale. Accordingly, the professional know-how that JSCE has accumulated is notrecognized widely enough to interest overseas professionals to use them in their practices. JSCE, being wellaware what issues they have, has opened the IAC with the aim of strengthening its international
communication and activity. Since counting the cooperation with Vietnam as one major activity, the IAC has setup Vietnam Group with the leader Dr. Phan Huu Duy Quoc (Shimiz Corp.). Then, the Vietnam Group has been
carrying out several joint activities with its counterparts in Vietnam.
Moreover, Center for Promoting Japan-Vietnam Civil Engineers Collaboration (CJV) opened within National
University of Civil Engineers (NUCE) in Hanoi in November 2013, thanks to Dr. Quoc and Dr. Nguyen Hoang
Giang of NUCE. The CJV has a library corner and meeting space so that people would use it to study
Japanese civil engineering technology, have meetings, and meet new friends and colleagues. The librarycorner features the 47 civil engineering references donated by the JSCE HQ. It stands out as a technicallibrary in Vietnam where not many civil engineering references are available. It is open to not only civilengineering professionals, but also the public. The library corner will be a valuable resource in the country, andmore books will be required.
There are many local engineers who have studied inJapan and also many Japanese engineers working inVietnam. I am convinced that building communication
between Vietnam and Japanese engineers is a vital
component of smoothly operating business. I do hopethat the Section liaises between the two parties,
assists them to expand their network. Please contact
the Section when you come to Vietnam. We lookforward to working with you.

Library Conner in Center for Promoting Japan – Vietnam
Civil Engineers Collaboration (CJV)【Contact】
JSCE Vietnam Section: Yosui SEKI (ALMEC Corporation), email: seki@almec.co.jp
Center for Promoting Japan-Vietnam Civil Engineers Collaboration (CJV):
Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong
Room 110, A1 Building No.55, Giai Phong Street, Hanoi, Vietnam
Email: Hường Nguyễn Thị <huongnt1@nuce.edu.vn>
Tel: +84.4.3.8691302; +84.4.3.8699403, Fax: +84.4.3.8691684

IAC Current News by Kotaro Hashimoto the 101st JSCE President◆Japan and Turkey Communication and Technical Exchange“Special Symposium on Earthquake Engineering” to commemorate the retirement of Prof. Masanori
Hamada, who is the 94th JSCE President, of Waseda University was held last month. Emeritus
Professor Zeki Hasgur of Istanbul Technical University, who is JSCE’s Turkey Section President,
delivered the speech “Cooperation History in Earthquake Engineering between Turkey and Japan” in thatspecial symposium.
Looking back at the history of Turkey and Japan relations, we notice that the two countries experienced
westernization during the same period. Under the rule of Sultan Abdülmecid I series of reforms wereundertaken in the Ottoman Empire to modernize society in Turkey in 1839 (The Ottoman Imperial Edict ofReorganization). Meiji Restoration began the westernization of Japan in 1868. The relations between
these two countries began with the two memorable events: one was the visit of Prince Komatsu toIstanbul on a Japanese warship in 1889. The other was the frigate Ertuğrul shipwreck on her returning
voyage, which resulted in the loss of crew members including Admiral Ali Osman Pasha. A rescue
operation was conducted with the cooperative efforts between the two countries.
Then, as for Turkey’s seismic researches, Istanbul Technical University Seismology Institute invited aJapanese leading engineer in 1951. Since then, the school has had several visiting professors fromJapan such as Prof. Takahiro Hagiwara and Prof. Tsuneji Rikitake. Prof. Keizaburo Kubo the JSCE 74th
President is one of them.
Recent technical cooperation between the two countries is seen in the major projects like the 2ndBosporus Bridge (Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge) project completed in 1988, the Immersed Tube Tunnel in
Bosporus project which opened for the public last year, and an ongoing Izmit Bay Suspension Bridge
project.
Turkey and Japan are earthquake-prone countries, and thus both need to enhance earthquake disastermitigation measures and improve disaster-resilient infrastructures at the same time. Sharing the common
challenge, they will further improve communication and technical exchange in the civil engineering field.
The operation of JSCE Turkey Section depends heavily on
Emeritus Professor Hasgur the president. There is the Turkey
Group in the IAC which is in charge of Japan-Turkey
communication, and more support to the Group and the Section
is expected in order to strengthen the tie between the two parties
and then to enhance the communication between two countries.
That may be achieved through the channel between the Prof.
Hamada and Emeritus Professor Hasgur who have a long lasting
friendship and also Prof. Aydan Omer’ of Ryukyu University
research activities with local engineers who is from Turkey.

Emeritus Professor Zeki Hasgur(2nd from left)

The IAC is holding World-Class Japanese Civil Engineers Symposium Series No. 1 “An Undersea RailTunnel under the Bosporus Strait, connecting between Asia and Europe” on April 3rd. This timely topic will
attract a large number of attendees. Moreover, the event hopefully will encourage International
Cooperation and Collaboration subgroups to plan unique and interesting projects.
Thank you very much.

What’s Happening● 2014/4/3・・・・・・Contract BC-1: Marmaray Project Symposium Venue：JSCE HQ, Tokyo（http://committees.jsce.or.jp/kokusai/project_1）● 2014/4/22・・・・・International Symposium Series No. 3: “(tentative) Diversification Strategy ofForeign Construction Companies”

Venue：JSCE HQ, Tokyo（http://committees.jsce.or.jp/kokusai/node/62）● 2014/5/29‐30・・・・・ 59th ECCE General Meeting & ECCE Conference

Venue：Tbilisi, Georgia（http://www.ecceengineers.eu/）● 2014/5/31・・・・・Joint Company Information Session in Civil Engineering for International Students
Venue：JSCE HQ, Tokyo（http://committees.jsce.or.jp/kokusai/node/52）

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. 36
http://www.jsce.or.jp/committee/concrete/e/newsletter/Newsletter.htm

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Y’s Murmuring
JSCE held another 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake commemorative symposium on March 3 this year. I
remembered that the Iwate Prefectural Office had a 9-year recovery and reconstruction plan and would maketheir best effort to rebuild the towns wrecked by the earthquake. During the past three years, people have been
losing interest and volunteerism has been falling steadily. They want to make themselves believe that recovery
and rebuilding works are making good progress in the Tohoku area, or don’t want to see little progress havebeen made, or can’t think anything but finding the ways to be less affected by the consumption tax increase.
How much progress Iwate has made towards recovery and reconstruction works?

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