Ward officials twice failed to find condo flaws

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Ward officials twice failed to find condo flaws

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Officials in Ota Ward, Tokyo, twice failed to detect that a condominium building in the ward designed by disgraced architect Hidetsugu Aneha was insufficiently earthquake resistant. Since Aneha has testified to having falsified the condo's construction data, enraged residents said they would hold the ward responsible.

According to Aneha's testimony during his appearance as a sworn witness before the Diet on Wednesday, the Ota Ward condo was the first structure he designed using falsified earthquake-resistance data.

The officials did not notice the falsification when they first checked Aneha's construction data and they overlooked it again when they reexamined the data following the revelation that there had been a series of falsifications.

Huser Ltd. developed the 24-apartment condominium, Grand Stage Ikegami, and Kimura Construction Co., based in Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Prefecture, built it. Aneha was responsible for the structural design, which was examined by Ota Ward officials in July 1998. The condo was completed in November 1999.

Huser revealed that the condo's earthquake-resistance strength was insufficient at the end of November.

Since the period of time the building plans for the condo had to be kept on file had expired, Ota Ward obtained structural calculation sheets from the design office and reexamined the data, concluding the building was sufficiently earthquake resistant.

Ota Ward knew Aneha had designed the condo's structure, but did not confirm that data falsification had taken place.

A board member of the condo management union, 56, said that despite officials' failure to determine whether the condo was sufficiently earthquake resistant, Aneha's remarks confirmed construction data had been fiddled.

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Construction company searched

Citing the Building Standards Law, Construction and Transport Ministry officials Wednesday searched the head office of Kimura Construction Co. in Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Prefecture, in connection with the falsification of earthquake-resistance data.

(Dec. 15, 2005)