Civil engineering heritage: country profile – Japan

Abstract

This paper is a review of Japan’s civil engineering heritage, one of the series of national profiles being published by Engineering History and Heritage. It is presented under four headings: Japan’s major civil engineering achievements; national and regional recognition of its engineering heritage; examples of conservation of engineering structures; and information sources for engineering heritage. The paper discusses engineering structures of heritage importance including the national road network constructed in the seventeenth century; the Kintai timber arch bridge near Hiroshima first built in 1673; the first railway in the 1880s including the Rokugo River Bridge built in 1878 and Ousakayama Tunnel built in 1879; as well as the Hashima artificial island in Nagasaki, constructed in 1897–1931, a component of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization World Heritage Site Meiji Japan Industrial Heritage. The paper lists organisations in Japan active in helping to conserve its engineering heritage, including a guidance published by the Japanese Society of Civil Engineers, and the paper concludes with a short list of websites and books giving further information about Japanese civil engineering heritage.