In August 1977, the 7th International Symposium on Transportation and Traffic Theory was held at the Kyoto International Conference Center. It was the first time this symposium had been held in Japan, in honor of Professor Eiji Kometani of Kyoto University for his contributions to the field.
When I first began my research on traffic flow, Professor Kometani—who had been a classmate of my father during their time at the Third Higher School—kindly allowed me access to the civil engineering department’s archives. There, I reviewed back issues of journals on Transportation Theory and Traffic Theory. I still fondly remember discovering Wardrop’s theory of traffic flow and travel time allocation, which I chose as my main research topic.
Professor Yuichi Nishikawa submitted our results as an English paper to this symposium. Fortunately, our paper was accepted as one of the 40 selected, including six from Japan. I was deeply impressed by Professor Nishikawa’s confident presentation in English, and it inspired me to one day present my own work in English as well.
The International Advisory Committee for the symposium consisted of twelve members, including John G. Wardrop of University College London. I was especially happy to meet Mr. Wardrop in person and have the chance to greet him. Another pleasant surprise was meeting Mr. Kai Ching Chu again. I had first met him during my 1974 visit to Dr. Gazis at the IBM Watson Research Center in the United States, and he was also presenting a paper at this symposium.
After completing my doctoral dissertation and participating in this international conference as its culmination, I returned to my regular work. Because I had been involved for many years in the Enasan Tunnel project, I began working with the Public Infrastructure Division of the Kobe Control Manufacturing Company, which had overseen the project. This division was responsible for the integration of public infrastructure systems, including power receiving and distribution equipment, pump and fan drive systems, and their control, monitoring, and operation systems.
At that time, most control systems still relied on electromagnetic relay circuits. However, with the arrival of industrial computers and engineering controllers, relay-based systems were gradually declining. The division faced urgent challenges—such as operating activated sludge processes in wastewater treatment and optimizing water supply and distribution systems—that could not be solved with traditional relay logic.
Even while I was finishing my work on the Enasan Tunnel and writing my dissertation, research requests from the Public Infrastructure Division had begun to come in. My colleagues and I started working on these projects, and I became deeply interested in the manufacturing company that was facing these new challenges.
[1]Y.Nhishikawa, I,Nakahori, “A network Theoretic formation and algorithms for traffic problem” P531-544, Proceedings of the 7th International Symposium on Transportation and Traffic Theory, Kyoto 1977
