During a tour of historic ruins of the Roman Empire, I visited the starting point of the Appian Way. According to "Roma-jin no Monogatari (The Stories of the Romans)" by Nanami Shiono, Roman roads were standardized to have structures that could support movements of legions. Roman roads with the width of 4 meters and depth of 1.0 to 1.5 meters, with walkways and ditches on both sides, are said to have had four-layered structures comprising gravels, crushed stones and stone blocks.
Roman roads were constructed based on the concept of the "network of multiple points allowing multiple options for movements" instead of the concept of "roads linking two points." The roads are described as one of the factors that provided the foundation for the long-term prosperity of the Roman Empire.

I made an impulse buy of a small photo book at Warsaw Airport on my way home from a business trip. I knew of a story about the re-creation of the city destructed by the Nazis under the direction of an architectonics professor. The photo book, which I opened up at home, showed the contrastive display of the "destruction" and "reconstruction" of the city on each two-page spread. The photo book was an impressive demonstration of the realization of an ardent wish of a nation to restore its identity and its leader who, with his historical vision, made it possible.

Myanmar President Thein Sein, who cordially but carefully explained the country's new nation-building plan to me when I visited Myanmar this past February, visited Japan in May. When I went to see him, there was a long queue of people who were waiting for a half-hour meeting with the "person in the news." During a meeting with me, he touched upon power generation and energy, the top-priority issue in the country's infrastructure development. I learned that President Thein Sein, amid his super-tight schedule, spent half of Sunday visiting a state-of-the-art power station built with environmental technology, perhaps taking into account the views of Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi.

In infrastructure development, the visions of leaders and their views about the timeline will shape a good portion of the future of a country and its society.