Call for Participation in Fire Protection Seminar

　　　　　　　　　　Board of Directors, Japan Association of Fire Protection Engineers

Dear Members,

Dr. Daniel Nilsson, who used to be Professor at Lund University, Sweden and currently Professor at the Department of Fire Engineering at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand is in Japan on sabbatical from April to the end of June. Professor Nilsson is a world-renowned researcher and educator in the area of evacuation safety research, and has been in contact with many researchers in Japan, including Professor Sano of Waseda University. He is also a leading figure in international activities such as IAFSS (International Association for Fire Safety Science), HBiF (Symposium on Human Behavior in Fire), and ISO TC92 SC4.

Therefore, taking this precious opportunity of his stay in Japan, we have asked Professor Nilsson to give a lecture on the subject of “Performance-based Design and the Use of Simulation as an Evacuation Safety Verification Tool” (tentative title) as a program of the Fire Protection Seminar of Japan Association of Fire Protection Engineers, and he graciously agreed. Then, we are pleased to announce that we have planned a Seminar on Fire Protection as follows. Please see below for details and how to register for this seminar.

~~~~~~~~  Details and how to register for this seminar  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Theme: (tentative title)

“Performance-based Design and the Use of Simulation as an Evacuation Safety Verification Tool”

Lecturer: Prof. Daniel Nilsson, Fire Engineering at the University of Canterbury

　　　[Profile] Wikipedia：https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Nilsson_(academic)　

Date: Monday, June 16, 2025, 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

Method: Held remotely (free of charge)

How to apply for participation:

If you wish to participate, please fill out the following form

and send it to the JAFPE Secretariat (info@jafpe.or.jp).

After confirming receipt of your application, we will send you

the URL to view the seminar.

Non-members of JAFPE are also welcome to participate.

The deadline for application is Friday, May 30.

(Information to be included in the application)

• Name:
• Affiliation:
• Email Address :
• Membership: Member / Non-member

 (Please indicate one or the other)

Case Study Participation Report of SFPE Fire Safety Conference & Expo on Performance-Based Design

The SFPE- SFPE Fire Safety Conference & Expo on Performance-Based Design was held in Copenhagen
from April 17th to 20th, and six members from Japan chapter participated to present case study. Three
different studies were presented this time: ① Worker Housing, ② Forest tower, and ③ Co-
living/working Facility. Japan and New Zealand tackled ①, Switzerland and the UK tackled ②, and
IMSFE (a joint team of several universities with fire protection departments) tackled ③. The Worker
Housing was a fire safety design for worker accommodation for development in undeveloped areas,
and the theme was how to design accommodation with high density while ensuring fire safety in an
environment where firefighting by firefighters cannot be expected. Japan’s proposal was unique,
combining fire resistant and semi fire-resistant materials as a construction material of wooden building
to control the collapse direction of the building in the event of a fire and as a result, achieve high
density. The New Zealand team also gave us a presentation with detailed considerations, and I think
the session as a whole was very substantial.
Just one day before the conference, a fire broke out in the old stock exchange building located very
close to the hotel where the conference was held, resulting in the collapse of the wooden roof
structure and spire, just like that of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. On the third day of the conference,
Copenhagen’s Fire Chief suddenly joined the conference and gave an emergency report presentation,
reporting on the status of the fire and firefighting activities. He also made a strong call for fire
protection engineers to do their utmost to prevent such a fire from happening again, which was met
with a round of applause from the entire audience.
Even with this unexpected turn of events, it was a very meaningful experience for the Japanese team.

Case study team of Japan                         Fire of old stock exchange building

The 20th anniversary celebration of the Japan Fire Protection Engineers Association (SFPE Japan chapter)

The 20th anniversary celebration of the Japan Fire Protection Engineers Association (SFPE Japan chapter) was successfully held at Square Kojimachi (Yotsuya, Shinjuku-ku) on December 14, 2023, with 47 participants.

At the celebration, distinguished members who supported the association’s activities in its pioneering years delivered remarks reviewing the association’s history, and young members who will lead the association in the future also made remarks. Through this event, participants prayed for the future development of the association. The celebration also featured a congratulatory message from Mr. Chris Jelenewicz, CEO of SFPE Headquarters.

Group Photo

Congratulations Message for SFPE CEO Chris Jelenewicz

Site tour to the Starbucks Reserve Roastery

The site tour to Starbucks Reserve Roastery along Meguro River was held on 23th of May. About 20 people attended this tour although it was raining.
This building is a complex of roastery and caffe and a flag ship shop of each country.
This type of building was built first in Japan. Caffe space is surrounding the void space where roastery, reservoir of roasted beans, automatic conveyor pipes of coffee beans are installed. Performance based design for safe evacuation was used to realize continuous void spaces without fire compartment. As a result, the design concept as a complex of roastery and caffe is realized. This is a good example of harmonization of the design concept and fire safety design.

Participants