Mass concrete has been used as the matrial to construct sabo dams in Japan. Various types of sabo dams, for example slit sabo dams, are currently designed against bed load, debris flow, pyroclastic flow and lava flow. Reinforced concrete may be better than mass concrete for these sabo dams in certain cases. In Austria, most sabo dams are made of reinforced concrete and the history, types and design methods of reinforced concrete sabo dams have been investigated. The design method was compared with the Japanese present standard. Throgh the studies it was found that various types of reinforced concrete sabo dam could be introduced to Japan and that they could be economical in some cases.