In June 1998, CANMET, in association with the American Concrete Institute, the Japan Concrete Institute and several other organizations in Canada and Japan, sponsored the Fourth CANMET/ACI/JCI International Conference on Recent Advances in Concrete Technology in Tokushima, Japan. More than 80 papers from 20 countries were received and reviewed in accordance with the policies of ACI. Sixty-two refereed papers were accepted for presentation at the conference and for publication in ACI SP-179.