Movement of Internationalization in Building Structural Design for Wind Load and New Wind Load Regulations of the Building Code in Japan

Abstract

The Building Standard Law was revised in June 1998 in Japan. It was the first major revise after it had been established 50 years before. The trigger is said to be an agreement between the President Clinton of USA and a former Prime Minister Hashimoto. They made a promise on reducing the non-tariff barrier. They say that the revise of the Building Standard Law was decided as the result. This is a good example of internationalization of the building code. Since these situations are in actuality, we have to take into consideration of international harmonization when we discuss domestic code problems. However information of international activities does not seem to be widely distributed. In this paper, ISO activities and the relevant APC activities are introduced focussing wind load regulation. The wind load provisions in the revised Building Standard Law Enforcement and the relevant technical regulations are introduced as well as the Housing Performance Indication System in the Housing Quality Assurance Act. The information shearing is expected to have a great help when we proceed into the next step of international harmonization of building code.