Asian Journal of Environment and Disaster Management 2011 3 1

doi: 10.3850/S1793924011000587

Seismic Retrofitting for School Buildings in Japan
— Publication of a Reference Book —

Takayuki Nakamura Facilities Department, Hokkaido University, Nishi5, Kita8, Kita-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido, 060-0808, Japan. s-bucho@facility.hokudai.ac.jp

ABSTRACT

Earthquakes can occur anywhere and any time in Japan. Improving the seismic resistance of school buildings is a pressing issue because children spend a large part of their daily lives in school. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) published a reference book for retrofitting school buildings in cooperation with the National Institute for Educational Policy Research (NIER). The book includes many seismic retrofitting examples with various pictures, charts, and plans. Even though the readers don't have enough technical knowledge and information about seismic retrofitting, they can easily understand what are critical for retrofitting existing school buildings. Readers are encouraged to access the full text of the reference book at http://www.nier.go.jp/shisetsu/pdf/etaishinjirei.pdf. The seismic retrofitting of school buildings mentioned in the reference book are examples of implementation oriented technology (IOT). The anticipated users of this technology include administrative officers of municipalities, national governments and other intermediate government bodies in the state, prefecture, district, etc. levels. The reference book can also be useful to policy makers. This technology focuses on earthquake hazards that put human lives and school buildings at risk.

Keywords: retrofitting, School buildings, Implementation oriented technology (IOT).

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