There has traditionally been clear demarcation in Japan in education and practice concerning the design and construction of buildings. It may sound strange to many civil engineers and architects outside Japan that the Japanese civil engineers, Doboku engineers, who design and construct roads, dams and bridges, do not deal with buildings, which are left to the structural engineers who belong to the Kenchiku field. In other words,

• The scope of work for American²⁾ civil engineering consists of designing and constructing roads, dams, bridges and building structures primarily on the basis of applied mechanics, while it does not include architectural design of buildings related to functionalism and aesthetics.
• Japanese Kenchiku specializes in buildings, but it covers practically every aspect of the design and construction of buildings, including architectural design, structural engineering, lighting, ventilation and air conditioning

Thus, American civil engineering and Japanese Kenchiku are broader than Japanese Doboku and American architecture, respectively. Due to the discrepancy, the direct translation of Doboku as civil engineering and Kenchiku as architecture can be misleading as my experiences below show:

• When I entered the graduate school of the University of Washington on a government scholarship back in 1950, I was assigned to the School of Architecture probably because the name of the Kenchiku department at the Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) from which I had graduated was translated as "the Department of Architecture" in my English transcript. I discovered that the structural design of buildings that I had intended to study was taught at the Department of Civil Engineering rather than at the School of Architecture. I have eventually earned a Master's degree from the Department of Civil Engineering.
• Another case concerned a foreign student who came to Tokyo Tech to study structural engineering for buildings. His dismay when he entered the Doboku department was similar to mine, although the direction was opposite, i.e., what he had intended to study was taught at the Kenchiku department. To avoid such confusion, the Kenchiku department at Tokyo Tech is translated as "Department of Architecture and Building Engineering." The Kenchiku departments in Japan that can be properly translated as departments of architecture belong to art colleges like the Tokyo University of the Arts (Tokyo Geijutsu Daigaku).
• When I learned that President and other executive officers of the American Society of Civil Engineers visited Tokyo, their original itinerary did not include the Architectural Institute of Japan, I took the liberty of inviting them to the Institute to meet their counterparts who specialized in structural engineering.

A similar ambiguity exists in the translation of the names of professional societies concerning civil engineering and architecture:

• Doboku Gakkai → Japan Society of Civil Engineers
• Nihon Kenchiku Gakkai → Architectural Institute of Japan

The Japan Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers calls itself "Japan Section of ASCE" without referring to Doboku. I wish to urge civil engineering departments in Japanese colleges to modify their English names to indicate that buildings are never dealt with. Likewise, departments of architecture in Japanese colleges are urged to modify their English names to indicate that they deal with structural engineering for buildings in addition to architectural design.

I advise civil engineers and architects outside Japan to contact the Architectural Institute of Japan mentioned above and the following organizations if they seek information on structural engineering for buildings in Japan:

• Professional society: Japan Structural Consultants Association
• National agency under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism: Building Research Institute

I would like to thank Mr. Linden Nishinaga, P.E., LEED AP, for reviewing my article and for making valuable comments.

¹⁾ Life Fellow, American Society of Civil Engineers and Fellow, Institution of Civil Engineers
²⁾There may be other countries.