NEWS LETTER 2013

AJCE Activity 2012

Young Professionals Exchange Programme 2012
-A Strong Partnership of CA and AJCEKeiichi KANAI
Vice Chair, Professional Development Committee, AJCECTI Engineering Co., Ltd.
Australia and Japan have been strong partners for
decades in the ever-rising Asia Pacific region, which is
now leading the global economy with its vast market
and excellent productivity. In the consulting
engineering industry, AJCE has been keeping a strong
tie with Consult Australia (CA) for many years. One of
the greatest achievements by these two institutions so
far is Young Professionals Exchange Programme(YPEP), which started in 1996 to promote good
relationship and friendship between Australian andJapanese young consulting engineers. YPEP has
offered precious opportunities for more than 130
young engineers to experience foreign corporate
cultures and establish human network in the past 17
years. YPEP has been highly praised by FIDIC as agood example of international training program foryoung professionals.

impact in their minds. In the meantime, the trainees
worked hard at their host firms according to theprograms, and made many Japanese friends throughcountless social events (Nomikai).
The weekend trip to Kyoto and Nara, former capitalcities of Japan famous for their old shrines andtemples, offered the trainees a chance to explore therich history of Japan. Also they must have foundanother Japanese culture in the Japanese styledinner party (Enkai) at the Ryokan hotel and thesubsequent late-night Karaoke party.
On the last day the Young Summit Meeting was heldin Tokyo, in which all the participants from bothcountries got together to share the outcome of their 3
weeks of training, and to exchange their views andopinions on some interesting issues such as thedifference of work environment and systems between
two countries. It was a valuable and meaningful
meeting for all participants, and one of the highlightsof the entire YPEP program. We had more than 40
participants for this meeting and its heat was brought
into the farewell party, which was held on the top
floor of a skyscraper in Shinjuku.
While YPEP's primary purpose is to provide young
engineers with opportunities to touch different
cultures, to learn new engineering skills, and to create
an extensive network, we hope that in the future thiswill be growing into close business relationshipbetween the participating firms in two countries, asmentioned in the Memorandum of Understanding
signed by CA and AJCE in 1995.

In October last year, AJCE welcomed 11 young
Australian engineers who would spend 3 weeks at 6
AJCE member firms. It was a good surprise for AJCE
that we had so many trainees this time (eleven is arecord), after the previous year's cancellation of the
programme forced by the tragic Great East Japan
Earthquake and Tsunami.
The schedule of YPEP2012 was as follows;
February
Selection of hosting firms
April
Selection of visiting Australian engineers
May
Start of Pre-visit dialogue
October 15
Orientation & Welcome Party
October 27-28 Trip to Kyoto & Nara
November 2
Young Summit Meeting & Farewell Party

We have already started preparing for this year's
YPEP, in which AJCE will be sending Japanese young
professionals from its member firms to Australia, andwe believe that it will be another success in YPEP's
great history.

AJCE, when accepting trainees, requires them toread a book introducing Japan in various aspects
and make a report on it, and to learn some basic
Japanese so they could introduce themselves inJapanese on the first day of visit. This time we had asecond good surprise when many trainees spoke fairly
good Japanese in the introductory session of theorientation meeting.
After the initial ceremonial events, the trainees started
their training courses at host firms. The program wasplanned individually by each host firm, yet this time
most firms incorporated in the program a trip to thestricken area in Tohoku region. It seems that seeing
with their own eyes the devastated towns and the
local people's effort for reconstruction has left strong

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AJCE Activity 2012

YPEP 2012 - Engineering in the Land of the Rising Sun
Jazper Blizzard
YPEP2012 Trainee
URS Australia Pty. Ltd.
Introduction
I was fortunate to be provided the opportunity towork in the Oriental Consultants Tokyo office forthree weeks in October 2012 as part of theYoung Professionals Exchange Program (YPEP).

Personal Reflections
Witnessing the destruction in the Tohoku region
from the Great East Japan Earthquake andTsunami was a somber experience that willremain with me for a long time. Although the sea
walls and early warning system were not as
effective as intended, it is sobering to think how
much worse the damage would have been if it
wasn't for the high level of earthquake design
requirements of the Japanese design standards.
Also, it was heartwarming to see the resilience ofthe local people, and the entire nation, as they
continue the rebuilding process.
Other memorable moments of the trip haveincluded: visiting the central circular Shinagawa
route tunnel construction site at Ohashi Junction
and the sightseeing trip to Kyoto and Nara.

Brief Outline of YPEP
YPEP is an annual 3 week exchange program
between Japanese and Australian consulting
engineers and engineering firms. The exchange
provides a technical, social and cultural
introduction to the host company/country whilst
fostering increased cooperation and businessbetween Japanese and Australian consulting
engineering firms.
Brief Outline of my Training Program
During the program I was fortunate to have a
combination of technical work and site visits.
Technical work included creating and analysinga Finite Element Analysis model of ShinYokohama exit and entrance tunnel in WCMOD.
The purpose of this was to perform a dynamic
analysis of the structure under earthquake
loading conditions. This was then compared to astatic analysis of the structure that had been
performed earlier.
Site visits included: A site walk of the Central
Circular Shinagawa Route tunnel construction
site at Ohashi Junction; Visiting the Yokohama
circular northern route - Tajiri Construction site,
Visiting Mito City to observe repairs to the Mito
City Train Station elevated walkway and visiting
the T?hoku region to observe the recovery effort
from the Great East Japan Earthquake.

Conclusion and Acknowledgement
Participating in YPEP 2012 has been a fantastic
experience. Observing the Japanese approachto engineering has provided me with manytechniques that I will take back to Australia andimplement in my daily working life.
I would like to thank Oriental Consultants, theAJCE, Consult Australia and URS for theopportunity to participate in YPEP 2012. It has
been an absolute privilege and I am extremely
grateful to Oriental Consultants for all the
hospitality and kindness that they have afforded
me during this exchange. I would particularly liketo thank Mr Suzuki-san, Ms Wang-san, Mr
Fukuma-san and Mr Hayashi-san for their day to
day assistance and for putting up with myatrocious Japanese language ability! I hope that
one day I can repay your extremely generous
hospitality. Dōmo arigatō gozaimashita.

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AJCE Activity 2012

A Journey of Business and Pleasure(Andrew) Lap-Ley Ngo
YPEP2012 Trainee
Brown Consulting Pty. Ltd.
these areas and Japan feel. The manner in which
Japan are united in their resolve is a great tributeto the strength of the Japanese people and thenation. I wish Japan all the best in the recovery
efforts.
Pleasure
Tokyo is as fantastic as I remember from myoriginal visit in 2004. I have become older, wiser
and less wild since then and it has been great tosee the progression that Japan has undertakenover this short period. There is no question that thepeople are kind and helpful, but the transportsystem during my first visit was not as friendly tome. With English now being prominent on the
rapid transit system, this has come a long way to
alleviating the challenges I had previously faced.
It was also great to experience Japanese culture
from a businessman's perspective. A lot of jovial
conversations over my favourite Japanese cuisine
accompanied with countless bottles of sake, beer
and umeshu were rather enjoyable when
discussing work life and worldly matters. My hosts
from the AJCE were particularly helpful ineducating me in the ways of discerning sakequality.
Hayashi San was kind enough to organize a
motorbike ride to Mt Fuji where I was able to see
the beauty of this natural treasure.

In 2012/10/13 I embarked on a journey to the''Land of the Rising Sun'' departing from Australia.
Onboard this flight was a group of Japanese highschool students returning to their homeland froma visit to Australia. All were in high spirits and after
3 weeks of staying in Japan under the guidanceof Soichiro HAYASHI, from my host firm, I returnhome with exactly the same feeling. I am very
grateful and wish to formally express my gratitude
to the AJCE, participating host firms, and my firm
Brown Consulting for directly and indirectly
supporting my endeavours in this program.
Business
During my stay, I have had the privilege of being
exposed to a real life project driving positivechange in the built environment. Specifically,
Oriental Consultants are undertaking a pilot
project launched by the Ministry of Environment(MOE) involving the development of an ionlithium battery (SCiB) for Electrical Vehicles (EVs).
This technology is planned to be implemented on
buses in the public transport network. The excitingprospect is that this project stands to revolutionize
transportation in Japan and is also adaptable forinternationally application. This of course is true toform given that it has been a long standing viewthat Japan are one of the world leaders in thefield of technology.
Hayashi San kindly took time out of his busy
schedule to guide me through the planning,development and funding process. It was
insightful to see this from the perspective of a
successful Japanese firm.
We also discussed current strategies forrenewable energy in Japan and solar power
generation. I had the opportunity to visit a solar
energy field facility in Kawasaki City which was asight to behold and was given the opportunity toobserve a Council committee meeting discussing
renewable energy in Saitama City.
In a more solemn note, I am deeply touched by
my visit to the regions devastated by the Great
East Japan Earthquake and tsunami. Words
cannot describe how I feel so needless to say that
there are no words to describe how the people ofOnce again I would like to extend my deepest
gratitude to all the people who have helped mealong this brief but enriching journey and I highly
recommend that young professionals take on thisopportunity in the future. I would especially like tothank Soichiro HAYASHI and the Oriental
Consultants team for investing their time in me
and this program. I look forward to reuniting withthem in the near
future for businessandpleasure.
Domo Arigato
Gozaimasu.

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NEWS LETTER 2013

AJCE Activity 2012

My YPEP 2012 Experience
Claire Miller
YPEP2012 Trainee
AECOM
Introduction

Compared to the departure time of 5pm of mostDuring my participation of the YPEP program

staff in Australia. I have learnt a lot of interestingorganised by the AJCE, I was fortunate to spend

information about bridge design over my three

my time with members of the substructure bridge

weeks with Chodai and am keen to share it withdesign group at Chodai. I was excited to spend

my colleagues when I return to Australia.

my time with Chodai as they specialise in longspan bridge design, which I have not had much

Cultural Experience

exposure to whilst working in Australia. During my

During my time off from work, I tried totime with Chodai I went on a site visit to Sendai,

experience as many cultural experiences andprepared and discussed differences between

sights as possible. One of the most enjoyable

Australian and Japanese bridge design

experiences was staying at a traditional ryokan,methodologies with the substructure team,which I was able to do in both Miyajima and on

partook in a homestay and was trained in how

our YPEP trip to Kyoto and Nara. In particularly I

to evacuate the office building by exiting out

enjoyed trying the variety of Japanese cuisine at

the window. The photos included in this report

the Enkai experience, as well as the experienceshow some of the fun I have had whist in Japan.

of the Japanese public baths and onsen.

Work Experience

Summary

Each work day in Japan I travelled on theI have had an incredibly enjoyable experience

Tsukuba express from Ueno to Tsukuba. I soonin Japan as a part of the YPEP program, filledlearnt the art, perfected by the Japanese, ofwith much laughter and learning. The kind

sleeping on the train and waking up just in timehearted nature of the Japanese people hasfor my stop. The main difference between

made it a country I would like to come back toJapanese and Australian offices that I noticed

and visit many times - especially when it isimmediately was the noise level and the hours

snowing! I would like to thank the AJCE andworked. My office in Australia is always busy andConsult Australia for organising such a rewarding

quite chaotic with the bustle of people goingprogram. Special Thanks to the staff at Chodai in

about their daily jobs, whilst in Japan the office

Tsukuba and in particularly my mentor Osamu

has a serene silence to it. I also noted that myMatsumoto san who was very patient when I wascolleagues tended to work very late

practicing my Japanese.

19NEWS LETTER 2013

AJCE Activity 2012

YPEP 2012 Summary- Chodai Co Ltd
Garrett BrayYPEP2012 Trainee
BG&E Pty. Ltd.
As a structural bridge engineer, I was fortunate toof final year

be partnered with Chodai Co Ltd, a top calibre

undergraduate

design firm with a strong 40+ year history ofstudents, PhD

impressive bridge structures including some of thestudents andlongest suspension and cable stayed bridges in theuniversity

world.

lecturers. I was
treated to a

I was based in the Sendai Office where I was met

tour

of

the

with fantastic hospitality, engaged in manylaboratory facilities and ongoing tsunami modelling

technical exchange activities and enjoyed sharing

experiments and their results.

plenty of social and cultural occasions with the
In the office, we discussed differences

friendly team there.

between Australia and Japan in bridge design
Due to its location in Northern Honshu, the effects ofprocesses, contract arrangements and structural

the 2011 Great Eastern Japan Earthquake anddetailing.

Tsunami have dominated the project work of the
Sendai branch over the last 18 months. As part of

I was also treated to a range of social and cultural

the program I had a full day site visit to some of theexperiences including sampling different Japanesemost affected areas between Sendai anddelicacies over many meals with co-workers, an

Kesennuma City where I inspected several severely

office family BBQ by the river, a homestay at thedamaged bridge structures as well as site locations

Sendai director's house, games of futsal, sightseeing

and plans for improved replacement structures.

around Sendai and Matsushima Bay as well ofcourse the Cultural weekend visiting Kyoto andNara.

In another site visit to the severely damaged
Wakabayashi Ward in the East part of Sendai, I
observed the current construction of new 7m high

YPEP 2012 has been a amazing cultural, businesstsunami walls proposed for approximately 32km ofand technical experience and I thank the kindcoastline with a core composed of tsunami debris.

people of Chodai Sendai branch and of the AJCEMy exchange also included a visit to Hachinohe

for this opportunity.

Institute of Technology where I presented to a class20NEWS LETTER 2013

AJCE Activity 2012

Summary of YPEP 2012: Pacific Consultants
Ashleigh Chambers
YPEP2012 Trainee
Beca Pty. Ltd.
Introduction
During my YPEP in Japan I was fortunate enough towork with Pacific Consultants (PCKK) based in their
Shinjuku office. During my time with PCKK I was able tolearn about technical engineering applications andexperience Japanese culture.
Work Experience
After a very warm welcome to Japan with welcome
parties with the AJCE and PCKK, I was given theopportunity to attend many site visits which allowed me
to witness some of the impressive and uniqueengineering works in Japan relating to water andenvironment, river management, hydraulics anddisaster planning and management.
I visited Lake Inbanuma, which has the poorest water
quality in Japan, where I was able to see aquatic plant
restoration, a working windmill, the Kaga-Shimizu Spring
and a stormwater turbidity treatment area.
I travelled to the Chiba Prefecture to see Gaikaku
Housuiro, which is used for flood mitigation and is thelargest underground water discharge tunnel in theworld. Here I was able to explore the 70m highunderground reservoir.
I participated in a Machi Aruki (town walk) in Kiryu City
with local community representatives to identify thebest evacuation route from the town.
I visited the beautiful town of Hakone, and witnessed
many examples of Sabo, techniques used to mitigate
damage cause by sediment related disasters, including
large Sabo dams, driftwood and debris screens, training
dikes and river bank reinforcement.
I attended presentations on hydrodynamic techniques
used in Japan and Thailand
and witnessed how thesetechniques were implemented
to minimize riverbed erosion at
the Asagawa and Tamagawa
rivers.
I visited the new science town of Tsukuba, where I saw
the many hydraulic models used for river flow analysis at
the PCKK laboratory, a 200m long 1:60 scale model of
the Tenryugawa river and a tsunami model at the

Department of Land Conservation and saw the VLBI
Antenna which is used to precisely measure movementin the tectonic plates at the Museum of Mapping and
Surveying.
Cultural Experience
I was very fortunate to experience and learn so muchabout Japanese culture during my training. I visitedmany shrines and temples in the Tokyo area including
Naritasan, Meiji-jingo andSenso-ji and visited Asakusa,
Ueno, the Imperial Gardens
and Odaiba where I saw
Tokyo from the top of thePallet Town ferris wheel.
I was also fortunate enough to travel to Kyoto where I
was able to see the amazing Kinkakuji, Nijo-jo,
Sanjusangendo and the Kiomizu temple to name a few.
I also visited Nara where I fed the cute deer and saw
the very large statue of Buddha at Todaji Temple.

I have also gone to a baseball game, playedpachinko, eaten at many izakaya and tried somany delicious Japanese foods and sake, been toa traditional onsen, seen a traditional Japanese
dance, sung at karaoke and went to a traditional
Japanese barbeque on the banks of theTamagawa with my PCKK workmates and theirfamilies.
SummaryThis has been an amazing experience being immersedin the wonderful culture of Japan with such generous
people and would like to thank AJCE and Consult
Australia for organising YPEP 2012. I would like to say a
special thank you the awesome, hard-working and kindfriends I have made at PCKK who have taught me somuch, especially my patient mentor Hiromi Kurosaki. It
has been a 'sugoi'
experience that I
am very grateful forand look forward tovisiting Japan again
soon.

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AJCE Activity 2012

My Japanese Experience with PCKK
Robert Hickey
YPEP2012 Trainee
AURECON
Tsukuba city where we visited both the PCKK and
National Institute of Land Management hydrauliclaboratories. At the hydraulic laboratories it wasamazing to see the scale of the river, tsunami andother hydraulic models that are developed forphysically testing ideas.

For the YPEP 2012 program I was given theamazing opportunity to work with Pacific
Consultants (PCKK) in their Water Environment
section. Pacific Consultants is a multi-disciplinary
company very similar in size to my own company,
Aurecon. To introduce me to the different topics
that are important to water engineering at PCKK
(and Japan in general) my mentors Yuasa-sanand Kirihara-san set me several assignments aspart of my pre-training dialogue. These
assignments required me to research andcompare the history, legislation and current stateof water pollution in Australia and Japan and thisprocess was invaluable to my preparation for the
training.

PCKK members in the River Planning group alsopresented us with elements of their research into
varied topics including improved methods ofcalculating cross-sectional velocity and numericalmodelling of large stones in river flows.
In addition to the technical aspects of the training
my hosts also introduced me to a myriad ofJapanese food and culture. Soba, okonomiyaki,
takoyaki, yakisoba, nihonshu, schochu, izakayas
and karaoke were all enjoyed immensely. While I
think my Japanese language skill is still very poor,
my understanding of the word 'Nomikai' is now
excellent.

For the training program, PCKK had organised acomprehensive set of field trips to demonstrate
both projects that PCKK are involved in andprojects that are significant to the industry. Eachtrip was organised by a different working groupwithin the section and it showcased the breadthof expertise residing at PCKK. Our first trip was tothe Lake Inbanuma area to look at the lake and its
watershed.
There the team had implemented some novel
measures to improve the water quality in the lake.
The measures included reducing first-flush
sediment in a stormwater reservoir and restoringnear-extinct plant life to a section of the lakeshore. This 'whole of watershed' approach to the
problem was very impressive.

Throughout the whole experience I found all of the
PCKK members (and Japanese people in general)
to be extremely generous, hard-working, fun andin many cases hilarious. The hard-working nature of
the consultants at PCKK is easily seen in the longhours spent at the office, much longer than many
Australian consultants.
Overall I have an amazing time on this exchange
and have made many friends, both Australianand Japanese that I hope to stay in touch with. I
would like to thank the AJCE and Consult Australia
for creating this invaluable opportunity and evenmore I would like to thank PCKK and its members
for their generosity and hospitality.

We also travelled to the Tokyo Metropolitan Area
Discharge Channel where we took a tour of thepump facility and main surge tank. The immense
size of the system is both an engineering marvel
and a very visible indication of the size of theflooding problems that affect Japan.
Other field trips included Kiryu-city where weobserved the engagement with the local
community in disaster planning; the Hakone area
to see examples of Sabo Dam usage (and gain
some extra life courtesy of kuro tamago!); and22

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AJCE Activity 2012

YPEP Program 2012 Report
Sean Keown
YPEP2012 Trainee
Arup
Introduction
For the 2012 YPEP program, I was lucky enough to behosted by CTI Engineering in Tokyo.

stormwater-wastewater separation techniques. I was
also intrigued to learn about the advanced tunnel
rehabilitation technologies used in Tokyo.
CTI took me to visit theirvery impressive Tsukuba
Hydraulics Laboratory
facility. At this facility CTI
has the capacity tocarry out large scale
experiments to findsolutions to problems
such as sedimentation build up, pollutant distribution
and flooding issues. I think this is a fantastic way ofensuring the effectiveness of engineering solutions
and a valuable tool for finding solutions to uniqueproblems.
One aspect of CTI's business I found particularlyinteresting was their disaster management strategy
expertise. This is an area that is new to me so it wasinteresting to learn about disaster evacuation plans
and the logistics involved with rehabilitation. I also
got the chance to visit Odaiba where I learnt about
the interesting work CTI is currently undertaking there
following the issues experienced in the lasttsunami/earthquake.
found the weekend trip to Kyoto and Nara a
fantastic experience. I learnt a lot about Japanese
history and culture and had a lot of fun. Staying at
the traditional Japanese hotel was a great
experience and the food, sake and karaoke were allspectacular!
Thank youThank you to CTI and AJCE for this fantastic andrewarding opportunity. The staff at CTI wereincredibly welcoming andhosted a brilliant program.
The kindness, hard workand expertise of the CTI
staff made this program atruly valuable experience.

Pre-training program
The pre-training dialogue helped me prepare for the
program and assisted in initiating relationships with
CTI staff. CTI instructed me to prepare a report andpresentation on water resource management andwater related disasters in Australia and Japan. This
was a great way to initiate discussions between
myself and CTI about the differences between thetwo countries water industries and water related
issues.
Program
CTI prepared a fantastic schedule for my 3 week
program that was incredibly informative andrewarding. I received a great introduction to theoperations of the CTI office and the structure ofwater resource management in Japan.
CTI led me on a two day tour of the disaster affected
region around Sendai that was a shocking but
rewarding experience. From an engineering
perspective, the large scale levees that are being
built and the rehabilitation work taking place wererewarding to see. Learning about the disastermanagement strategies and the work being
undertaken to return life to normal in the area wasalso a valuable experience. On a personal level, it
was amazing to see the resilience of the locals insuch tough conditions and I had a brilliant time withthe welcoming people of Tohoku.
CTI took me to see the Koraku DHC sewer pumpstation that uses the thermal energy of sewerage topower heating and air conditioning for buildings inthe Koraku-1 area in central Tokyo. This innovativetechnology has allowed a significant reduction in
the energy usage and carbon emissions for the area.
I also visited the 'Kuramae Mizu no Yakata' where I
found it particularly interesting to learn about
combined sewer and stormwater systems and the23NEWS LETTER 2013

AJCE Activity 2012

My Experience in Japan with CTI Engineering
Samantha Passmore
YPEP2012 Trainee
AECOM
Introduction
The River and Water Resources Division of CTI
Engineering, based in Saitama City, has been agreat host during my three week program here in
Japan. During my time with them I received anumber of introductions to each group within thedepartment, and was able to compare Australianand Japanese water issues and solutions. I also wasvery lucky to attend numerous site visits.

Hijikata San making me feelat homeExperience out of the OfficeThroughout my training, CTI was very generous with
their time and took me on many interesting site visits.
I was able to see the tsunami affected areas
around Sendai and along the southern coasts of the
Iwate and Miyagi prefectures. I am still unable tocomprehend the speed and size of the tsunami,
despite seeing the damage, images and videos. I
also went on a boat tour to see the bridges of Tokyo
city, the CTI Experiment Institute in Tsukuba, theMetropolitan Outer Area Discharge Channel, thelevees, superlevees and Watergates along the Ara
River, and to the Edo Museum (I feel I was very lucky
to have this one included).
The YPEP trainees and their mentors visited Kyoto
where we experienced an Enkai Party. The numberof parties we have had, and the number of sunrises I
have seen, showed me the Japanese definitely
know how to party!

Tohoku Branch party with
Tago San and Kato San

Experience in the Office
On my first day we held presentations comparing
work life in Australia and Japan. I could not believea 1am finish is not unusual here! I then received
introductions to different groups in the Saitama
office, including Flood Mitigation, SedimentManagement, Water Quality Management, River
Administration, Coastal Engineering, Water
Resources, Water Infrastructure, and Adaptation
Strategy for Climate Change. In the Tokyo Main
Office I was introduced to the Asset Management
and Disaster Mitigation groups.

CTI Members showing us
reconstruction works in Sendai

CTI Members at the Edo-Tokyo
Special Study Cruise

Summary and Acknowledgements
I feel so grateful to have had this exchange
experience, and I can't wait to share everything I
have learned with my colleagues in Australia. I
thank all the staff at CTI, and all the strangers on thestreet who helped me when I was lost, for speaking
English with me, or for being patient with myJapanese. I particularly want to thank Mr. Naoki
Fujiwara for having me in his team and for giving me
his employee's time, Ms. Chie Kato for being anamazing and patient mentor and Mr. Kengo
Shibata, for being a good Japanese teacher andfor his entertaining karaoke skills.

I enjoyed comparing common methods of dealing
with issues in each country. For example large
levees are not as popular in Australia, and River Law
exists across a number of documents, not just one. I
was also surprised to hear that there are water
shortages in Japan as well, despite few droughts,
due to the large population.
Within the office I quickly learnt about the culture ofbringing a gift to share with colleagues upon returnof a trip away. This is a great tradition as I got to try
many delicious sweets from various regions inJapan.

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AJCE Activity 2012

My Japanese Adventure
Greg Holland
YPEP2012 Trainee
MWH
Introduction
I was forwarded information on YPEP 2012 by acolleague and following a discussion with mymanager, I jumped at the chance to apply. I was
delighted to be accepted on to the exchange, as
I thought it would be a great way to experience
Japan. I was given my first choice placement at
Nihon Suido Consultants (NSC), in the domestic
wastewater section.

After Kesennuma City I travelled to Kooriyama City
to visit Kenchu Sewage Treatment Plant where, asa result of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster,
radioactive sludge is being currently produced onsite.
The sludge incineration facility at the treatment
works is currently running at capacity and carefulmanagement of the waste is critical to ensuring
minimal impact on the surrounding environment.

Knowledge Sharing
One of the main aspects of the exchange was theopportunity to share knowledge and experienceswith the engineers at NSC. Several workshops wereorganised with young engineers, the overseas
business department and general discussions
about odour control techniques and wastewater
treatment.
I was lucky to be able to go on several site visits
during my stay. These included state of the art
underground Ariake Water Reclamation Facility inTokyo and Chiba Nogiku no sato Water Treatment
Facility in Chiba Prefecture.
I was taken on a three day trip to the Tohoku
region to see the devastating effects of the 2011
earthquake and tsunami. In Kesennuma City wevisited the completely destroyed Kesennuma
Wastewater Treatment Plant and the temporary
treatment plants that have been installed in thearea. I could not believe the impact that thetsunami had on the area.

Cultural Experiences
As part of my preparation for the exchange, I
started to learn the Japanese language and findout about the culture. This served me well inJapan, although my Mancunian Japanese
accent definitely needs some more work.
During my time in the Japan I have experienced
the unique contrasts that Japan has to offer, fromthe beautiful autumn colours and breathtaking
temples of Kyoto and Nara to the bright lights andbusy streets of Tokyo.
The Japanese food has been eye opening andmostly delicious but I quickly learnt that theattitude of 'eat first, ask questions later' is required.
My new found love for sake would probably add
another page to my report, so I have left this out.
Conclusion
My time in Japan has been extremely rewarding
and I have been left with great memories. I havemade many friends and business contacts bothfrom Japanese companies and the other YPEP
participants. I hope that the relationships madeduring these three weeks can be maintained andthat they will lead to more mutually beneficial
opportunities in the future. I have decided tocontinue to study and plan to return one spring to
see the cherry blossom.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank both
the AJCE and Consult Australia for organising theexchange. I would like to personally thank the staff
at NSC for hosting me for the three weeks, with a
special mention to the NSC mentors Kazuhiro KISHI
and Riota ADATI.

Stranded ship in Kesennuma City

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AJCE Activity 2012

An Australian in Japan
Eleanor Chan
PEP2012 Trainee
Aurecon Australia Pty Ltd
Introduction
I am a process engineer in the water andwastewater industry and was fortunate to beplaced in the Water Supply team at Nihon Suido
Consultants Co. Ltd.
During my three week placement, I partook inknowledge and cultural exchange discussions,site visits to water, reclamation and sewage
treatment plants, a cultural trip to Kyoto andNara.
Knowledge and cultural exchange discussions
We had open discussions and talked freely tofind out about Japan and Australia's cultures.
Learnings that I took away were that in Japan, a
10 hour working day is normal, design
considerations for disasters are concerned withearthquakes, female representation inengineering is still low and that Japan places
high importance on Overseas Development
Assistance.
Site visits
Site visits included trips to the Ariake Water
Reclamation Centre, Chiba Nogiku no Sato
Water Treatment Plant, Kesennuma City and
Kenchu Sewage Treatment Plant. Recycling is
the norm rather than an innovation. In thewastewater treatment plants that I visited, therewas 100% recycling and zero waste. Treatedwastewater is recycled for toilet flushing and forindustrial reuse.
Design improvements to mitigate against disaster
Having seen the devastation caused by theearthquake and tsunami when I visited
Kesennuma City, it is heartening to see thatJapan doesn't intend to be as vulnerable in the
future. Key design innovations being
implemented are key infrastructure and roads
being built above the flood water levels, the useof super levees to prevent flooding, emergency
public taps installed at the water treatment
plants.

The water industry's response to radioactive sludge
At the Kenchu Sewage Treatment Plant, thesludge will continue to be captured and stored
on site for at least the next 30 years until thelevels of radioactivity have decayed toacceptable levels. Seeing the bags of sludge
impressed upon me that the impacts of the
Fukushima disaster will be long lasting and thereis never an easy answer.
Kyoto and Nara cultural trip

My favourite part was visiting Nara and Kyoto. I
enjoyed learning how the capital of isdetermined by where the Emperor lives, seeing
Kyoto's famous pottery and learning about thechildren's festival.
Recommendations
I believe that Japan as a whole needs to work
towards better work-life balance and increase
diversity in the workplace and more actively
support the increase female representation inengineering.
Acknowledgement
Thank you to NSC and the AJCE for thiswonderful opportunity to experience Japan. I
have made lots of new friends and I hope towork in Japan in the future. I would also like topersonally thank my mentors Riota Adati and
Kazuhiro Kishi.

26NEWS LETTER 2013

AJCE Activity 2012

YPEP 2012
Zisis Plakas
YPEP2012 Trainee
URS(Golden Pavilion), Big Buddha and the deer parkat Kasuga-taisha.

Being a railway engineer, my placement waswith Nippon Koei in the international railways
division. In my first few days I was welcomed tothe office in Yotsuya and I was briefed on thecompany's line of work and active projects. It
was a pleasant surprised finding out that wehave worked on common international projects
in the past. In the next few days I was introduced
to the history of Japanese railways and thetechnology used today. I was also taken on 3
site visits. One in Sendai to visit the tsunami
effected areas, one at Nippon Koei's Research &Development center and one at Toyama to visit
the Hokuriku Shinkansen development.
Sendai was an eye opener to say the least. It
was quite devastating to see the damage thatwas done in the coastal areas. We visited anumber of locations to see damaged structuresand buildings as well as the sorting sites ofmaterial collected from the effected areas.
Finally we visited the tsunami defence dykes
which are being reconstructed and upgradedalong the coast line.

The YPEP has been a very valuable experience
both on a personal and a professional level. It
has given me a unique flavour of Japan, its
people and the Japanese culture. I have madesome excellent professional contacts and mostimportantly new friends. I would like to thank the
AJCE, Mr Hidekazu Konishi, Mr Tetsuto Nakano
and the Shimizu family for taking time off workand their families to make me feel welcome andI hope to return the favour in the near future.

In my first weekend I was very kindly welcomedat the Shimizu's residence for homestay. There I
sampled the Japanese family lifestyle and I was
given my 30th birthday cake!

This is my fourth time in Japan. The thing I cameto love most about Japan is its versatility and its
people. There is such a range in personalities,
lifestyles, weather, scenery, styles.... Beach in thesummer vs skiing in the winter, Tokyo city lights vsthe beautiful countryside, tradition vsmodernisation. Somehow Japan makes it fit
together.

In the second week of my stay I visited the
Nippon Koei R&D center in Tsukuba. There I was
briefed on the line of work undertaken by thecentre and was taken on a tour of the site.
My third site visit was in Toyama for theconstruction of the Hokuriku Shinkansen and thedevelopments at Toyama station.
The 2 day visit to Kyoto and Nara wasremarkable. My personal highlights of the trip
were the visit to the Sanjusangen-do, Kinkaku-ji

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