Roundup: Construction scandal expands in Japan, shaking trust on architecture safety

A construction scandal triggered by a tilting condominium in Yokohama further widens, as more cases of data fabrication in construction involving the company Asahi Kasei Construction Materials were found across Japan, shaking residents' trust on architecture safety.

The company, a subsidiary of chemical and materials science giant Asahi Kasei Corp., has been examining the 3,040 piling operations it conducted nationwide over the past decade since the scandal broke out.

According to local media, about 300 out of the 3,040 piling work projects conducted by the company were suspected to have been built with falsified data, and more than 10 people might have been involved in the falsification.

At a news conference held on Monday, Asahi Kasei Corp. said falsified data were found on 19 of the 41 projects handled by the male employee responsible for the tilting building in Yokohama, and "multiple people" were engaged in similar falsifications.

The firm declined to announce the exact number of the persons involved as the investigation is still under way.

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

An investigation showed that about eight of the 70 concrete foundation piles supporting the apartment complex were not driven deep enough into the bedrock. Asahi Kasei Construction Materials, the company responsible for the piling work, said a male employee responsible for gathering data on the foundation construction forged the readings that determine whether piles have reached the load-bearing layer, as well as the amounts of cement poured to keep them in place.

In a hearing held by the firm, the employee admitted to falsifying the data by copying data of other piling work reports because he lost some of the documents that recorded the correct data and was unable to record accurate data for some other documents due to equipment malfunctions.

More cases of similar nature were found in the next few days by investigations held independently by municipalities and other entities.

The buildings involved include public condos and school buildings in Hokkaido, Tokyo and Yokohama.

In those later-found cases, the persons responsible for the piling work were not the one for the tilting building in Yokohama, causing widespread concerns over the safety of all projects done by the company.

"It is an extremely grave problem that different workers were falsifying data in projects in different regions. We think the firm had problems with its project management system all across the organization," said Keiichi Ishii, Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, at a news conference last week. "We plan to thoroughly investigate the company's piling work and its internal mechanism for checking projects, as well as its compliance with laws, " said the minister.

The ministry carried out an on-site inspection into the Asahi Kasei subsidiary Monday afternoon in accordance with the construction business law.

Harumi Takahashi, governor of Hokkaido where at least four buildings were found with falsified data, also expressed his displeasure at the company by calling it "very unreliable", local media reported.

For ordinary home owners, although the local governments said there seemed to be no safety problems at the buildings involved in the scandal aside from the tilting condo in Yokohama, concerns over safety of their homes are spreading among them.

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

Asahi Kasei is currently discussing compensation with the Yokohama condo residents. The firm is also expected to submit to the government a comprehensive report on the 3,040 cases on Nov. 13.

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