Current practices and future directions of steel design in Japan

Four design codes/regulations for steel structures in Japan are briefly reviewed. Some of them employ the limit state design concept while the others are still based on the allowable stress design concept. The process for revision is now in action. The directions in the development of structural design codes are also reported herein. It is noted that a current trend in this development is to employ the performance-based design concept that has been successfully implemented in some seismic design codes.