Expanding scandal raises concerns over architecture safety in Japan

A scandal expanded as the Yokohama city government in Japan announced on Thursday that one of its public facilities was constructed using fabricated groundwork data, raising concerns among residents over safety of their home.

The scandal broke out earlier this month when a condominium building in Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo, was found to be tilting.

An investigation showed that some of the piles supporting the building were not sunk into the bedrock, while records on the piles had been falsified to make them look all right.

Asahi Kasei Construction Materials Corp., the company responsible for the piling work, said an employee who handled data for the condominium had admitted to having fabricated data to "cover up mistakes" in a total of 41 projects.

The central government of Japan has instructed Asahi Kasei Construction Materials Corp. to investigate the piling work conducted over the past decade in 3,040 projects nationwide.

A different employee was in charge of the Yokohama public facility but the details were not disclosed yet.

Similar cases were also found in Hokkaido, with the prefectural government launching an investigation on Thursday.

According to the Hokkaido government, flawed groundwork data have been used in the expansion of a public housing estate in Kushiro.

Although both the local governments said there seemed to be no safety problems at the buildings, with no visible signs of tilting or cracking, concerns over safety of their homes are spreading among the residents.

"What's going to happen when an earthquake occurs?" said a resident of the problematic building in Hokkaido.

As concerns are spreading, the central government of Japan is considering expanding its probe to look into work by construction companies other than Asahi Kasei Construction Materials. Endit