I am honored to have been newly appointed as the chairman of the concrete committee from April, 2023 as the successor of the former chairman, Prof. Takumi SHIMOMURA.

The Concrete Committee has a long history, dating back to its establishment almost a century ago in 1928 as the Concrete Research Committee. It is currently one of the most prominent committees in terms of scale, activity, and history within the JSCE.

One of the important responsibilities of the Concrete Committee of the Japan Society of Civil Engineers (JSCE) is to periodically revise the JSCE Standard Specifications for Concrete Structures (the Standard Specifications) to bring it up to date with current practices and the most recent technological advancements. Given recent demands of the society, a new edition has been published once every five years. 2023 is one such year, and the committee will publish revisions of the "General Principles", "Design", and "Maintenance" volumes in March, followed by "Materials and Construction" and "Dam Concrete" in September. Both traditional print and electronic editions will be made available in response to the trend toward digital publication. The committee cordially hopes that this new Standard Specifications will promote the construction quality of concrete structures which parallelly contributes to the development of society.

On the other hand, I believe that it has become difficult to clearly recognize its backbone, including the philosophy and spirit. Because the Standard Specification was divided into separate volumes in 1986 and the subsequent revisions were made in each volume independently. Prior to 1986, it was evident that the Materials and Construction section played a dominant role, followed by the Design section which was established on the basis of the previous sections’ stipulations. On the contrary, after the 1986 revision, the Design volume became the primary focus, introducing a new concept of limit state design, and the Materials and Construction volume was adjusted accordingly. However, I believe this paradigm shift has not yet completed, with a long way ahead. Therefore, I aim to review the history of Standard Specification so far, clarify the remaining tasks, and bridge the gap between historical issues and future development within my two-year term.

As I make an effort for the further development of the Concrete Committee, I would highly appreciate your support and cooperation.

KISHI Toshiharu
Chairman of JSCE Concrete Committee
Professor, Institute of Industrial Science
The University of Tokyo