Message from the Chairman

It is my great pleasure to extend heartfelt greetings to the readers of the first issue of the International Newsletter of the Concrete Committee of the JSCE.

The Concrete Committee was established in 1930 as the Board of Concrete Investigation. Since then, the primary task of the committee has been to publish and maintain the JSCE Standard Specifications for concrete technology. Currently, the Standard Specifications are revised based on the concept of performance-based design. The revised version of the volume, Maintenance, was published in 2001, while Verification for Structural Performance, Materials and Construction, Paving, Dam Concrete, and Verification for Seismic Performance were published in 2002. At present, the committee publishes not only documents related to the Standard Specifications and the Recommendations, but also those on education and international affairs as well as various engineering and research topics.

Regrettably, information about our activities, which should be equally useful both here and overseas, is of limited use outside Japan because most of the publications are in Japanese. The committee has been trying to change this situation by publishing English versions of the Standard Specifications, the Recommendations, and selected articles on concrete engineering.

However, overseas engineers may still find it difficult to learn about our achievements. International publications normally lag far behind in their reports of current Japanese activities. Therefore, the committee has decided to issue this Newsletter in order to spread word of our activities around the world. The Newsletter will be published four times a year.

Although the newsletter format is limited in the amount of in-depth information it can provide, we will make every effort to describe, if only briefly, our latest achievements in concrete materials, mechanics, design, and construction of concrete structures, as well as the activities of the committee. Any criticism, opinions, and encouragement will be highly appreciated by the editors of the Newsletter.

Kyuichi MARUYAMA