The percentage of steel structures in building construction is going higher and higher in recent years. The safety and quality control regarding steel structural buildings have been discussed for improvements over the past years. Especially since Hyogo-ken Nanbu Earthquake in 1995, its role to protect people's lives and properties has been a great concern of both general public and those in the field of steel construction. About 30 years ago when Japan was in the middle of 'Bubble Economy', steel structural buildings increased dramatically, but at the same time, the serious problems such as weld flaws also increased. After a careful consideration for the measure devised to deal with those problems, in March of 1993, Technical Committee for Rationalization of Problems in Steel Structural Buildings(Chairman: Prof. Morihisa Fujimoto), which was set up as a consultative body of Housing Bureau of Ministry of Construction, issued the Report on Rationalization of the Problems in Steel Structural Buildings. In July of 1993, taking the Report into consideration, JSSC set up Special Committee for Steel Structure (Chairman: Prof. Morihisa Fujimoto), conducted a careful three-year survey on the reality of the field of steel construction, actual situations of engineers and existing regulations, and talked over the measures to ensure the quality of steel structural buildings and the proposals to set up the system of qualified engineers, both of which were suggested in the Report. As a result of that, JSSC, with relative societies regarding construction, Administrative agencies and specialists regarding steel construction, established Organization for Building Steel Structure Qualification (OBSSQ) in July of 1996, and initiated the system of Qualifications of Quality Control Administrator for Constructional Steel Structure as a consensus of those in the field of steel construction in 1998. For the purpose of carrying out the administration of Certifying Work of Qualification and this organization fairly as well as smoothly, OBSSQ, with participation of the representatives of organizations concerned, has set up Administrative Meeting as the supreme organ and Certifying Committee, which carry out certifying work and registration for each qualified engineer. In addition, Technical Committees, which approve of implementation guidance of examinations and seminars, make the decision to pass or fail candidates, and Execution Committees, which make the questions of examination, edit the textbooks for seminars, and operate examinations and seminars, have been set up for each category of qualified engineers.
		Certifications are currently given by OBSSQ to: Administrative Engineers for High-tension Bolt Joints Supervisors for Steel Construction Works The engineers qualified by this system are considered to be the specialists in building steel structures on construction sites by the clients, construction supervisors and constructors. Moreover, they are expected to be the examination engineers for the interim survey report by the revised Building Standard Law in the near future.