Opening ceremony of the 52nd International Training in Seismology and Earthquake Engineering has held on October 7, 2011 at the JICA Tsukuba International Center with 23 participants from 14 countries including Haiti which sent the first participant from the country. The importance of this training course is increasing more and more, considering frequent earthquake and tsunami disasters taking place all over the world, and the devastated damages by the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. In particular, Asian and other area's countries under rapid growth, earthquake and tsunami disaster management is an urgent issue for further development. In addition, this course is expected to play a crucial role for technical cooperation of recovery from the Haiti Earthquake that occurred in January 2010. Moreover three participants from Dominica Republic where is located next to Haiti, also join this time. A total of 1,549 participants from 98 countries in the world participated in the IISEE training including this time and other trainees who joined courses that BRI held so far more than two months.

Participants (23 persons, 14 countries): Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, China (2), Dominica Republic (3), El Salvador, Haiti, Indonesia (4), Macedonia, Malaysia (3), Mongolia, Myanmar, Pakistan (2), Peru, Philippines (ABC order): including Tsunami course (5)

Hajime KUROSAWA

Head of Administration Division, IISEE

(1) Rehabilitation Steps of Onagawa Town;

IISEE visited Onagawa Town of Miyagi prefecture that was heavily affected by tsunami both in April and September 2011. Please find attached the file on the comparison of photos that were taken from the same places in April and September (one month and a half year after respectively).

Please visit the following site: http://iisee.kenken.go.jp/special2/20110311/Onagawa.pdf

(2) Before and After of Tsunami of Taro Area;

Participants in Tsunami course of IISEE visited Taro area of Miyako city, Iwate prefecture every year. Taro area is famous for its huge dike against tsunami which height reaches 10m, however the area was heavily damaged by the March 11 tsunami. Please find attached file on comparison of the photos that were taken in 2010 and 2009 when participants visited to the same places in April 2011, one month after the tsunami. Please visit the following site:

http://iisee.kenken.go.jp/special2/20110311/PPTs_beforeafter2.pdf

Shoichi ANDO

Director, IISEE

The Global Seismological Observation course will be held during January 11th - March 9th, 2012. The target countries are Republic of Indonesia, Kingdom of Thailand, India, Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, Republic of Fiji, Republic of Guatemala, Arab Republic of Egypt, Republic of Zimbabwe, and Turkmenistan. The closing date for application is November 16, 2011.

Tatsuhiko HARA

Chief Research Scientist, IISEE

China domestic training course was held in Urumqi-city, Xinjiang, China organized by JICA from 29 August to 6 September. Former participants of China Seismic Building Course became the instructors to lecture about Japanese seismic design and retrofitting techniques. Dr. Saito also made lectures about response control techniques and damage report of the 2011 East Japan Earthquake in Urumqi, Kunming and Shanghai.

Taiki SAITO

Chief Research Engineer, IISEE