IISEE NewsletterSep 30 2019
Number 173

In This Issue• Courtesy Call on theMLIT Minister• 9 ParticipantsCompleted the 20182019 TrainingCourse• GRIPS GraduationCeremony• Letter from exparticipant• Address in Reply on
Behalf of All theParticipants in thegraduation ceremonyin BRIIISEE Net andTraining
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International Institute of Seismology and Earthquake Engineering BRI Japan
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Courtesy Call on the MLIT Minister

By Mr. Takahiro Yamada, Head of Administration Division, IISEEOn August 29, 2018-2019 training participants paid a courtesy visit to Mr.
Keiichi Ishii, Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism. Mr.
Ishii encouraged them to be a leader of each country of earthquake disastermitigation through the network of participants and from this training
course. On behalf of the participants, Ms. Ngun Za lang from Myanmar
expressed her gratitude to the Minister for supporting developing countries
through this training program for over 50 years. She said she wants toproof the greatness of IISEE training course using their knowledge which
they had learned in IISEE and to enhance the capability of preparedness fornatural disasters in their countries and to keep having the passion ofdisaster mitigation.
Lastly, Mr. Ishii shook hands and took photo with the all 9 participants one
by one. We hope the courtesy call help their encouragement of theircountries future.

Earthquakes
The 2011 off the Pacificcoast of Tohoku
Earthquake
Reports of Recent
Earthquakes
Utsu Catalog
Earthquake Catalog

Minister Ishii and the IISEE Participants

9 Participants Completed the 2018-2019 Training
CourseBy Mr. Takahiro Yamada, Head of Administration Division, IISEEOn Sep 10 we had a closing ceremonyof training courses in Seismology,
Earthquake Engineering and Tsunami
Disaster Mitigation which had started
on Oct 2, last year. This year we had 9participants from 7 countries awarded
a training certificate of completion andtake courses certificate Participants
who were chosen by their country
divided into three courses,
Seismology, Earthquake Engineering,and Tsunami Disaster Mitigation. They
took lectures in consideration ofspecialty. They settled research tocope with individual problems to havein their mother country.
In the ceremony, Mr. Sugahara,
Director of Disaster Management
Policy Program of GRIPS granted thebest research award to 3 participants.
Using their knowledge and network ofthe research, we are anticipating theirsuccess.
Enjoy Now

Mr. Takeshi WATANABE,
General Director of JICA
Tsukuba International Center

Dr. Mitsumasa MIDORIKAWA,
President of BRI

Best research award
Ms. Ngun Za langof S course from Myanmar

Mr. Masaru SUGAHARA,
Director of Disaster Management
Policy Program of GRIPSBest research award
Mr. Dhira Phaderaof E course from Nepal

Best research award
Mr. Micheal Arturo LINTHONALVAREZof T course from Ecuador

Call for Papers
IISEE Bulletin is now
accepting submissionsof papers for the seismology, earthquake
engineering, andtsunami. Developing
countries are targeted,but are not limited.
Your original papers will
be reviewed by theeditorial members andsome experts.
NO submission fee isneeded.
Try to challenge!!

GRIPS Graduation Ceremony

By Mr. Takahiro Yamada, Head of Administration Division, IISEEIn cooperation with JICA and the National Graduate Institute for Policy
Studies (GRIPS), IISEE can award the degree of Master of Disaster
Management to all participants who gained predetermined results.
8 Participants of IISEE training course attended the graduation ceremony inGRIPS on Sep 11.
We appreciate everyone for understanding and cooperation to conduct thistraining course. Thank you very much.

Contact Us
The IISEE Newsletter isintended to act as a gobetween for IISEE andex-participants.
We encourage you tocontribute a report andan article to this newsletter. Please let us
know your current
activities in yourcountries.
We also welcome yourco-workers and friends
to register our mailing
list.

GRIPS Graduation Ceremonyiiseenews@kenken.go.jp

Letter from ex-participant
By Rommel David Zambrana Areas
National Autonomous University of Nicaragua UNAN-Managua
Faculty of Science and Engineering Building Department(Nicaragua, 2015-16, Earthquake Engineering course)

Back Numbers
http://iisee.kenken.go.jp/
nldb/

IISEE got a mail from Mr.Rommel David Zambrana Areas from Nicaragua as
below.
Thank you very much for your mail, Rommel san!!
Hello,
Dear professors and staff of the International Institute of Seismology
and Earthquake Engineering
It has been a long time since we left Japan. We miss experiences, friends
that we had in Japan, all the lectures that we received from all professors
from BRI.
Last week we had an opportunity to hear from Professor Dr. Nobuo
Furukawa. He was invited as a special guest to Scientific talks at UNANManagua.
Here, I would like to share the video of the scientific talks byDr. Furukawa Nobuo at our prestige university UNAN-Managua. There weremany students and professors listened to his presentation and let me tell
you that it was nice to see him again. The activity was worth sharingknowledge with the students. I am pretty sure they enjoyed it a lot.
I hope that you enjoy the video, and I would like to see all of you
one day more.
Best regards from all of us
Rommel, Xochilt, Nadir & Max

https://youtu.be/UOa8stqATbA

Address in Reply on Behalf of All the Participants in thegraduation ceremony in BRI

By Mr. Robert Jay Nimer Panaligan from Philippines“Learning is the only thing the mind never exhausts,
never fears, and never regrets.”—Leonardo da Vinci.
Dr. Mitsumasa Midorikawa, President of Building
Research Institute, Professor Masaru Sugahara, Program
Director of the Disaster Management Policy Program ofthe National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Mr.
Takeshi Watanabe, General Director of JICA Tsukuba
International Center, Dr. Toshiaki YOKOI, Director ofInternational Institute of Seismology and Earthquake
Engineering, Ladies and gentlemen, good morning.

Mr. Robert Jay Nimer Panaligan
from Philippines

Standing to deliver these closing words on behalf of all
my fellow scholars in the Seismology, Earthquake Engineering and Tsunami Disaster Mitigation
Course is a singular honor. The honor belongs, though, to a variety of people who spent an
immeasurable degree of studying the rudiments of our course. This goes to each and every scholar
who left no stone unturned in fully understanding the principles behind these natural phenomena.
Our professors share this humble limelight for their endless toil in sharing these knowledge, as well
as discovering new frontiers to transform the challenges of nature into opportunities.
I remember the day, as if it were yesterday, when a group of people from different countries arrived
to Japan; for some of us, it was the first time to leave our countries and families with the objective
to start a new challenge, without knowing what we would meet here in a completely new
environment and culture as in Japan.
Our first impression when we arrived was to appreciate how a country like Japan has a perfectsynchrony between technology and its culture. Even with its improvements, they still maintain theirorigins, their roots. The main reason how Japan has become the Japan of today is that they havelearned from the past to create a better future for next generations.
We could learn much about Japan and its improvements through all the lectures and field trips
organized by the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the International institute ofseismology and Earthquake, who made their best effort to let us have a better approach tounderstanding how Japan has recovered from past natural disasters.
From all the field trips, we could appreciate that, despite having gone through numerous losses,
both human beings and materials, they never gave up, always looking for how to improve todecrease as much as possible the effects from the disasters. Since all our countries are vulnerable
to natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis, this should be a good model to follow; toshow us that the best investment must be made by creating a resilient community based on thereality of each of our countries, and this can only be achieved through the education to its citizens.
This is the reason why we have come to Japan.
Looking back at our dreams in the search for knowledge, it would seem that time has passed likethe wind blowing, which is ephemeral, but bringing many experiences during our stay in Japan. Afteralmost one year, we feel very grateful because, even far from our families, we have received thesupport from the beginning until the end from many entities like JICA, IISEE/BRI, and the National
Graduate Institute for Policy Studies. That search for knowledge brought us to where we are today.

Not so many people like to try new and unknown things, but we chose to follow our dreams, so wetook the chance to be here in Japan, far from our homes, to be enticed with our professors’
professionalisms, equivocal passion for knowledge, and incomparable humility and wisdom.
In our life, we cannot deny that we always wanted to have shortcuts. We normally want thingsalways to be easier for us. In the quest for knowledge and wisdom, I am sure there is no shortcut.
Living here far from our families was not easy; finances, time, intellect and emotion have to be
managed well. We need to enter another stage of maturity to accept and understand what arerequired of us.
In spite of what we have reached now, with knowledge and wisdom, let us stay humble. Let us try
to understand others rather than to be understood; “Do not let your degree dignify you.” We areseasoned, we are honed, let us be the first one to serve than to be served. Our degree will be ourpromotion for the future development of each of our countries. To our senseis, and to all who havemade this possible, we want to assure you that we will apply everything we learned here in thistraining program. As soon as we arrive, we will share all our knowledge and experiences to ourcolleagues to improve the development of our countries in the three different fields: seismology,
tsunami and earthquake engineering.
Finally, I want to conclude this speech by expressing our sincere gratitude to IISEE/ BRI, JICA, andGRIPS for all the knowledge, experiences and trust that have been shared with us during this year.
In the same way, thank you very much for giving us the great opportunity to meet brilliant people
from seven different countries: Bangladesh, Colombia, Ecuador, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua andPhilippines. For my classmates, all of us know how much we sacrificed to reach this goal, even in
the most difficult moments, where we felt we were losing strength to move on, but we could findthe motivation to get up through the help of each other as a big family. That’s the best reason togive congratulations to all of us, but we don’t have to stop here. This is just the beginning of a newjourney with new opportunities.
I want to end my speech with the following quote: “Believe and act is as if it were impossible to fail.”by Charles Kettering.
Thank you, one and all.