2016. 7. 1

Japan Society of Civil Engineers
International Activities Center

IAC News No.45
Japan – An experience Unlike Any other～International Student’s Life in Japan～
My name is Abdul Moiz, and I am currently a 1st-year master student in River andEnvironmental Engineering Laboratory in the Department of Civil Engineering,
the University of Tokyo. I came to Tokyo from Pakistan in October, 2015. I
completed my bachelor degree in civil engineering in the University ofEngineering & Technology, Taxila in the same year. Right from the moment when
my flight landed in Japan, I have been gaining exciting experiences every day.
From the ‘jungle’ of infrastructure in Tokyo to the calm and beautiful environmentof shrines and temples, Japan is truly a place where technology and infrastructuredevelopment maintain harmony with nature and history.
Five or six years ago, I never thought that I would join the civil engineering field.
Abdul Moiz
It was my father, a civil engineer, graduated from the same university as mine in(a master’s student, thePakistan in 1983, who inspired me to enter that field. During my studied for myUniversity of Tokyo)
bachelor’s degree for four years, I had many great teachers. The most importantteacher for me is Dr. Muhammad Ali Shamim. I met him in the hydrology course. Until then, I did not realize
the importance of that subject, nor notice that civil engineering was more than buildings, roads, foundations etc.
It was the first time that I saw something even bigger in civil engineering. I realized how important water
resources were in Pakistan, and that the related problems were getting more challenging and more complex. Dr.
Shamim is the person who made my vision much clear and encouraged me to apply to the University of Tokyofor higher studies in order to acquire a new perspective to deal with the complex challenges of ‘tomorrow’.
Even though graduate courses are offered in English, and everyone speaks English on campus at the Universityof Tokyo, one of the biggest challenges for me is communicating with Japanese people outside the campus. The
intensive Japanese Language Course organized by Department of Civil Engineering is very helpful, particularly
due to dedicated teachers. Never before this did I not think that I had the capability to learn another language.
And Assoc. Prof. Akiyuki Kawasaki, Dr. Eng., I cannot go without mentioning him. He has given me every
support to not only to succeed in academics, but also to enjoy extra-curricular activities.
The Foreign Student Office (FSO) of the school makes it easier for me to get adjusted to life in Japan. The HostFamily Program organized by the Alumni Association of Civil Engineering Department introduced me to myhost family in Japan in order to help me understand more about the Japanese culture and feel more like at home.
The FSO together with the Alumni Association also frequently organizes many events and excursions in orderto help us take a break from our busy routines and learn more about civil engineering outside the lab. The latest
one was a field trip organized in association with JSCE to the Reconstruction site of Shibuya, Tokyo. I wasamazed to see how the various elements of infrastructure were intricately layered and how all the construction
activities were being carried out with minimal disturbance to the surroundings.
My research focuses on evaluating the hydropower potential of Pakistan using GIS along with Advanced
Hydrological Modelling, WEB-DHM (Water and Energy Budget-based Distributed Hydrological Model).
Power crises in Pakistan is a major problem. Fortunately, Pakistan has vast energy reserves in the form ofhydropower. The hydropower may be exploited to alleviate the energy crises in Pakistan and pave the way forfuture economic development. Over the years, Japan has proven to be a pioneer in water resource engineeringand management with its cutting-edge research and state-of-the-art technology. Through my visits to Kusaki
Dam and Shimokubo Dam, I learned a lot about the operation, monitoring, maintenance and history of dams inJapan and understood how important they were to the Japanese society. My research group holds meetings1every week to exchange ideas and their progress with each other, and to suggest solutions to the problems which
the members are facing in their researches. Our research activities are frequently updated on the group’s blog
website (http://kawasakilab.blogspot.jp/).
Lastly, I am very thankful to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science & Technology for awarding me
the MEXT scholarship. I hope, through my hard work and sheer determination, I will be able to achieve myresearch goals and make the most out of my stay in Japan.

Visit to Shimokubo Dam with my research groupmembers

Field Trip to Shibuya Reconstruction Project site

JSCE Global Vision Seminar 2016
Global Strategy for Construction Industry"Learn from M&A in Construction Industry" by AECOM
Global Vision Seminar 2016 “Global Strategy for Construction Industry – Learn fromM&A in Construction Industry –“ was held on 8th April, 2016 in cooperation between
International Activities Center (IAC) and JSCE Committee on Construction
Management.
In Japan, infrastructures have been developed under severe social, economic, andenvironmental conditions, which have contributed to the development of the country.
In order to strengthen the sustainable economic growth of the country, it is vital forthe country to develop its growth strategy while utilizing its experiences in thecountries in which their construction markets will develop and their demands ofinfrastructure development will increase.

Masaru Noda
IAC Director(Obayashi Corporation)

In the society in which that investment in construction will be declining in a near future, Japanese construction
companies should switch gears and equally treat domestic and international projects as major parts of theirbusinesses, and devise strategic approaches to survive in the global market without depending on Official
Development Assistance (ODA).
Seeing current trends in the construction industry, the aforesaid IAC and committee organized the seminar toraise attention of the construction industries and discuss business strategies to gain competitive advantage in theglobal market with international construction companies.
The keynote speaker Dr. Toshio Okazumi (Director, Overseas Project Division, Policy Bureau, Ministry of Land,
Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism) delivered a speech about oversea development of infrastructure systems.
His speech made the audience realize the importance of support to developing countries to improve theirinfrastructures with Japanese construction technologies in order to increase Japan’s presence in the globalmarket.
Mr. Hideki Sakaeda (President, AECOM Japan) and Mr. Ian Chung (Vice President, Civil & Infrastructure,
AECOM Asia) introduced AECOM’s growth strategies using an M&A approach, post M &A business2

operations and a newly developed business model.
The seminar, endorsed by MILT and The U.S. Commercial Service, attracted more than 70 participants, andinvolved them into discussions in a Q&A session. Many of the participants gave positive feedbacks and thankssuch as “It was informative and useful to learn about M & A which was rarely discussed in seminars and like.”

Dr. Okazumi delivers a keynote speech.

A speaker and audience exchanges opinions in the Q & A
session.

【Reported by Masaru Noda,
Leader of Professional Development and Education Program Gr., IAC】

Outline of Activities of the Landscape and Design Committee
The landscape and design committee was established in 1997 to conduct researchstudies concerning landscape/design, proposals of practice or specific methods forrealizing excellent landscape formation, evaluation of realized landscapes, and others
for constructing civil engineering structures and spaces composed of such high-qualitystructures. There are two major projects: “Civil Engineering Design Prize” and“Conference for Architecture of Infrastructure and Environment.”
Civil Engineering Design Prize is annual awards, which aim to produce a competitive
situation in the design filed of civil engineering. The awards have been given to 137
Prof. Shinichi Kitamura
Chair of Landscape andworks located in Japan over the past 15 years. The target works are general civilDesign Committee
engineering structures or public spaces. The awards are given to the works thatrealize innovative landscape creation and conservation which are coupled with surroundings or community, thepeople who greatly contribute to the works, and the organizations that support those people because of uses ofplanning, design technology, systems, or organizational activities. The selection is conducted by an award
selection committee comprising experts on civil engineering design, structural and bridge engineering, riverengineering, urban planning, architecture, landscape architecture, industrial design, and others. It always createsa lively discussion. In 2014, the annual selected works and the website were redesigned, and we try to offer
more clear information not only to civil engineers or designers, but also to the public.
As for Conference for Architecture of Infrastructure and Environment, there are about 50 to 60 presentations
and papers annually since the first conference was held in 2005. One of the notable features of the conference isthat it provides the following divisions: a design works division, a planning and management division and acriticism division in addition to the research study division corresponding to narrowly-defined academic papers.
In the design works division and the planning and management one, authors discuss creative activities about
projects in terms of specific ideas on design, techniques, system, or methods. The criticism division covers
enunciations which survey the essence or the best form of landscape/design. Special sessions called as technicaldiscussions have been set up since 2013 so that engineers or designers in the field could discuss skills and ideas
in accordance with certain themes. We expect that this provides a place for extensive discussions and forespecially sharing field jobs or experiences.
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Civil Engineering Design Grand Prize 2015
The Improvement of Home River in Ichijodani Heritage(Fukui pref.)Kita-saito Asahikawa (Hokkaido pref.)【Reported by Shinichi Kitamura (Yamanashi University) Chair of Landscape and Design Committee】

Updates◆The summary of feature articles in the JSCE Magazine is available on the JSCE website.
http://www.jsce-int.org/pub/magazine◆JSCE2015 Awards winner names – Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award and others- are listed onthe JSCE website.

http://www.jsce-int.org/a_t◆2016 Kumamoto Earthquake (for your information in Japanese)
http://iresc.kumamoto-u.ac.jp/iresc_dobokureport.pdf(Seibu Branch)

http://committees.jsce.or.jp/report/node/117 (Seibu Branch)
http://committees.jsce.or.jp/eec2/ (The Earthquake Engineering Committee)
http://www.jsce-ip.com/events/symposium/finished.html?id=162 (Committee of Infrastructure Planning andManagement)
http://committees.jsce.or.jp/report/node/115 (Committee on Hydroscience and Hydraulic Engineering)
http://committees.jsce.or.jp/report/system/files/%E4%BC%9A%E9%95%B7%E7%89%B9%E5%88%A5%E8%A
A%BF%E6%9F%BB%E5%9B%A3%E8%AA%BF%E6%9F%BB%E5%A0%B1%E5%91%8A.pdf (Presidentialspecial team)◆Journal of JSCE
The Journal of JSCE is the collection of research papers which can be viewed on the JSCE website.
https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/browse/journalofjsce◆IAC Students and Alumni Network
http://www.jsce-int.org/IAC_network§ IAC News Subscription §The IAC News is one of the communication tools to share information and ideas with the members. We would like to invite
you, your friends and colleagues to join the communication and to subscribe the IAC News. Please register online:(http://www.jsce-int.org/node/150). We look forward to meeting you.
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(https://www.facebook.com/JSCE.en)
Comments and Questions
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JSCE IAC: iac-news@jsce.or.jp

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