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Japanese police raid 117 buildings looking for faulty plans

Staff

January 1, 2006

Building Design and Construction

Last month police raided 117 locations in Tokyo and five prefectures of Japan, including the offices of property developers and former architect Hidetsugu Aneha, to gather criminal evidence on earthquake resistance data allegedly fabricated by Aneha.

The police action came 15 days after the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport filed a criminal complaint alleging that Aneha had knowingly designed at least three condominium buildings and a hotel with substandard quake resistance, according to Japan Economic Newswire.

The four buildings, all in Tokyo, were completed based on the faked strength data between February last year and June this year, said the ministry, adding their quake-proof strength is only 26–33%.

These buildings may collapse in the event of an earthquake with an intensity of upper 5 on the Japanese seismic scale of 7, a force just strong enough to cause cracks in the walls of properly reinforced buildings.

The ministry said the number of hotels and condominium buildings that have been found to have substandard quake resistance due to Aneha's falsification of building data comes to 78 in 17 prefectures.