Quotes of the Day

Just how safe are Japanese buildings? That's the question shaking Japan as a construction scandal widens, jolting public confidence over building standards in one of the world's most earthquake-prone nations.

On Nov. 17, the Japanese government announced that 20 condos and one hotel in and around Tokyo designed by architect Hidetsugu Aneha did not meet Japan's strict earthquake-resistance standards. Thirteen buildings, it said, were so poorly protected that they were unlikely to withstand a medium-strength temblor. Most shocking of all: Aneha's work failed to meet codes not due to error or incompetence, but because he knowingly skimped on materials like reinforced steel and then fabricated safety data to indicate projects were in compliance. Aneha, who admitted in a press conference to faking the data, said he had buckled under pressure to meet cost requirements of developers and construction firms that had hired him. In hearings before the Japanese parliament last week, Hideaki Shinozuka, an executive director at Kimura Construction, which built many of Aneha's buildings, denied pressuring the architect to violate safety regulations. "I said to reduce the amount within legal limits," Shinozuka said.

The extent of Aneha's deceit is still being uncovered. Already, 21 defective hotels have closed their doors and hundreds of residents have been ordered to evacuate the worst of his buildings. Many families occupying Aneha buildings that the government has deemed safe are vacating anyway. The Tokyo Association of Architectural Firms is receiving 100 calls a day from homeowners worried about earthquakes (it used to get two a week). And the body of an architect who had worked with Aneha was found at the base of a cliff outside Tokyo last week. The police have yet to disclose the cause of death, but suicide is suspected. The Aneha quake has already taken a toll, but the aftershocks may have only just begun.

• Jim Frederick
• An architect's admission of faked building safety data and substandard construction causes uproar in earthquake-prone Tokyo