Although it was more than 20 years ago, I well remember my first meeting with Dr Tohyama. It took place in London on 15 April 1985, on a River Thames boat where we had arranged a dinner for Chairmen and Authors of papers on the evening before the opening of No-Dig 85. I was immediately impressed by two things about him. First, his friendliness and easy approachability and secondly, the great respect in which he was obviously held by the other Japanese delegates present, who clearly knew him well.

That was an important meeting for me. It led to a long and very fruitful friendship which, sadly, came to an end recently with Dr Tohyama’s death. The news of his death must have saddened a great many people, both in Japan and various other countries round the world, who had come to know him during his long and distinguished career. I am grateful for this opportunity to put on record my appreciation of his major contribution to the trenchless initiative worldwide.

Even before we met, he had shown his keen interest and strong support for the first No-Dig event. He had submitted a paper on Microtunnelling in Japan, which we felt to be so important that he was asked to present it during the opening session of the Conference. Also, he had brought to England a party of 30 from Japan – the largest overseas delegation at the Conference. During the closing session of the Conference, the formation of an international society was proposed. The support of the Japanese delegates and of Dr Tohyama in particular, was a great encouragement.

We kept in touch and in October 1986 I had an opportunity to visit Tokyo. It was typical of Dr Tohyama that although my plane arrived in Tokyo more than 12 hours late – due to a mishap before leaving Heathrow – he nevertheless met me at the airport in the evening and conveyed me to my hotel. The following day we had very useful discussions about the newly formed ISTT and about the next event planned for London, No-Dig 87. He also arranged for me to pay visits to the Iseki Poly factory and, when I moved on to Singapore, to several microtunnelling construction sites.

In 1987, Dr Tohyama again led a major delegation to the No-Dig event in London, and it was in that year that the ISTT really began to develop as an international organisation. Plans were agreed for holding No-Dig 88 in Washington DC, in collaboration with the American Water Pollution Control Federation. Dr Tohyama accepted an invitation to become Vice-President of the ISTT in recognition of the key role that he was already playing in the Society’s development worldwide. He again led a substantial Japanese delegation to the Washington DC event and it was there that the first tentative discussions took place about the formation of National Societies that would be affiliated to the ISTT. The Netherlands Society was created first and Japan soon followed with the JSTT, which was formed with a splendid initial membership of more than 150 in April 1989, with Dr Tohyama as its Chairman.

This led to proposals for an International No-Dig event to be held in Osaka in 1990, organised jointly by the JSTT and ISTT. The Executive Secretary of the ISTT Col Jon Sutro and I visited Japan in February 1990 and were much impressed by the arrangements proposed by Dr Tohyama and his team. When the event took place in October of that year, it attracted the largest number of attendees for any No-Dig to date – just over 1,000 – and also included the presentation of the largest number of papers to date.

When it was over we had a special ‘round-up’ meeting of those who had been involved in organising this highly successful event, followed by a dinner. It was not a large gathering and it was very informal, but I remember it well. At the conclusion of the meal Dr Tohyama invited me to say a few words and in my response I emphasised how pleasing it was that two teams of people from very different cultural and historic backgrounds had collaborated so easily, that our common interest in promoting Trenchless Technology had enabled us to work so well together. As we parted, he shook me repeatedly by the hand with a warmth that I am sure echoed his own pride that the first International No-Dig in Asia had been such a fine achievement.

We met repeatedly after that, in many different parts of the world. He attended every International No-Dig in places as diverse as Paris, Hamburg, New Orleans, Copenhagen, Dresden, Taipei, Prague, Birmingham, Genoa, Perth and Budapest, always leading a substantial Japanese delegation and always ensuring that papers were presented illustrating the steady progress of the technology in Japan. We also met on other occasions, such as Lord Nugent’s lunches in London, and even — by chance — occasionally in airport lounges. When an International Committee was set up in the early days, Dr Tohyama was one of the founding members and when the International Board was established a few years later he became one of the small team, which during his lifetime grew to a board of more than 20 directors. His contribution to the ISTT was so outstanding that it was recognised first with a Gold Medal in 1995 and then in 1998 when he accepted an invitation to become the ISTT’s first and only President.

Drafting this note about Dr Tohyama has brought back a flood of memories. His dedication to golf; the friendly presence of his wife during many of the early No-Digs; his chairmanship of Working Group No 3 on microtunnelling, which produced several excellent reports; and the quiet way in which he would interject sound ideas into the Board’s discussions. He was a wonderful man and a great civil engineer. It was a pleasure and a privilege to have known him.