The ANMC21 provides administrative officers and specialists of ANMC21 member cities with several specialized training programs. This article introduces the Training and Joint Research in connection with Urban Planning with Strong Resistance to Earthquakes, which took place from July 10 to 13, 2012.

This program is designed to introduce Tokyo's policies for developing a disaster-resistant city and projects for promoting applications of seismic reinforcement to buildings to Asian cities officers in charge of disaster-resistant city development planning and building administration. It also offers a chance for them to exchange opinions regarding the status of disaster prevention policies and problems in each city, in order to improve the capacity of Asia as a whole to make disaster prevention policies. The program was offered for the first time since 2009 to three participants, one from Bangkok and two from Taipei.
Each city has different problems in terms of disaster prevention. Bangkok, for example, has almost no earthquakes or typhoons, but it often has heavy rains that cause flood damage in urban areas, like the one that hit the country in July 2011. It also has the problem of ground sinking for geographical reasons. On the contrary, Taipei often has earthquakes and typhoons, like Tokyo, and needs the latest earthquake-proof technology for tall buildings.

On the first day and in the morning of the second day, lectures on policies of Tokyo were given to the participants and in the afternoon of the second day, they visited a disaster simulation facility and building with earthquake-proof construction. On the third day, they visited Tokyo's disaster prevention center, where each city also made presentations and held discussions. Lastly, on the fourth day, they exchanged information concerning disaster prevention policies of Asian cities.

This report particularly focuses on the tour in the afternoon of the second day.
On the second day, the party visited the Life Safety Learning Center in Ikebukuro, which runs earthquake or fire simulations so that people can have a chance to learn how to escape fires and how to use fire extinguishers, and reconfirm if they are really prepared for the disasters. It has an earthquake simulation machine, with which they actually had a chance to experience a level 7 earthquake, as strong as the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011. The earthquake was so strong that even adults had difficulty staying still unless they tightly held the legs of table under which they were hiding. This must have strongly, impressed how dangerous earthquakes are, and how important it is to hasten the development of the cities which can withstand such disasters.

Next, they visited Shinjuku Center Building, which has been reinforced to withstand long-period oscillations. Long-period oscillations are the ones with a long period of more than few seconds. There is a concern that when tall buildings are exposed to this type of shaking for a long time, their structural components or piping can get damaged, the ceiling may fall and office automation equipment may shake, causing human injury. This is one of the problems of large cities with many high-rise buildings.
The Shinjuku Center Building has introduced oil dampers for building vibration control which are applicable to existing buildings. The party was also surprised at the video of high-rise buildings in Shinjuku shaking at the time of the Great East Japan Earthquake. During the Q&A right after this, they asked questions about the seismic capacity of the high-rise buildings and Tokyo explained its high technology for construction.

It was a short seminar for a small number of participants, but each program provided a lot of information including specific features of policies of each city with enthusiastic questions and exchanges of opinion. They said they were satisfied with the programs and asked for more information regarding disaster prevention policies and restoration plan unique to Tokyo.
These opinions will be incorporated in our training programs in the future. We look forward to seeing other members from each city at the next seminar.