'I was too busy to feel I was doing something wrong.'

[Taro Toporific]

Tokyo hotel to suspend business over doubts about quake resistance
JapanToday.com, Saturday, November 19, 2005 at 05:00 JST, TOKYO ---A newly built hotel in Tokyo has suspended its operations following the revelation that it may not withstand strong earthquakes because it was built using a construction plan with falsified quake-resistance data, railway company Keio Corp, which operates the hotel, said Friday. Keio Presso Inn Kayabacho, located in Tokyo's Chuo Ward...
filing criminal complaints against Hidetsugu Aneha, 48, the architect, and his office for falsifying data in violation of the Architectural Standards Law. Aneha was involved in preparing construction plans for about 90 buildings over the past five years.
On Friday, Aneha admitted to falsifying the data, telling reporters he had felt pressure to cut design and construction costs.
"I didn't feel I was doing something wrong. I was too busy to feel that way," Aneha said....more...

[gomichild]

Countdown to weeping apologies and much bowing on TV in 3....2.....1....

[maraboutslim]

never mind.

[Mulboyne]

Photo Asahi: The award-winning "Grand Stage Sumiyoshi" - one of the many apartment blocks built on false data.

Asahi: Architect fudged figures in same report

The architectural office at the center of a scandal over newly constructed buildings with unsafe earthquake standards submitted an official report on an 11-story apartment complex filled with inconsistencies that any expert could easily have picked up, industry insiders say. The office of architect Hidetsugu Aneha, 48, not only set unusually low estimates for earthquake stress but also used different figures for parts of the structure covered earlier in the report...In a statement Monday, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said that Grand Stage Higashi-Mukojima had only 31 percent of the necessary earthquake resistance as required by the Building Standards Law. It said the structure would likely collapse if an earthquake of upper 5 on the Japanese intensity scale of 7 hit...more...

Asahi: Relief plan sought for Aneha's victims

The government is weighing a plan to provide low interest loans to hundreds of residents who felt compelled to move out of new condominiums that were built using falsified structural strength reports...more...

Asahi: Blame game starts over fears of losses

The scandal over unsafe buildings in and around Tokyo has housing developers, builders and architects falling over themselves to pin the blame on each other for false structural reports...more...

Japan Times: Quake-proofing scam hits builder

...According to the Chiba Prefectural Government, Ichikawa-based Aneha was involved in at least 194 construction projects in 22 prefectures over the past 10 years. The projects include 89 condominium complexes in six prefectures, and 105 detached houses, electrical pylons and temples in 20 prefectures, it said. The 89 condo structures include 44 in Tokyo, 20 in Chiba Prefecture and 19 in Kanagawa Prefecture. Hidetsugu Aneha, who heads Aneha Architect Design, admitted earlier this month to falsifying quake-resistance data for only 21 buildings. Keio Presso Inn Gotanda, a hotel in Shinagawa Ward, Tokyo, closed its doors Monday, saying Aneha made the hotel's structural calculations for quake resistance and may have fabricated data. The hotel was not among in the 21 buildings whose data Aneha admitted faking...more...

[FG Lurker]

Countdown to weeping apologies and much bowing on TV in 3....2.....1....

Right now there is a construction company shachou on TV along with an independent lawyer and some commentators. The shachou is from one of the companies that built one (some?) of these buildings. He's constantly insisting that his company bares zero responsibility for the state of the building. The lawyer hasn't had much chance to speak yet, but from what he has said, it seems he thinks otherwise.

This is going to be interesting to watch unfold over the coming months...

[Mulboyne]

Asahi: Architect blames pressure of firms
Architect Hidetsugu Aneha said he faked the strength reports of 21 buildings because of heavy pressure from real estate and construction companies to reduce costs, officials of the land ministry said Thursday..."When I submitted the (first) report to a firm, I was told, 'Reduce the number of reinforcing steel rods further.' When I submitted a revised report, I was told again to reduce the number further," an official quoted Aneha as saying. "I said, 'If I reduce the number further, a safety problem will arise, so I can't do it.'" Aneha said. "Then, I was told, 'If you can't do it, we will use another office.'" The architect said he could not afford to lose his job, "so I obeyed the instructions."

[Taro Toporific]

Right now there is a construction company shachou on TV ... constantly insisting that his company bares zero responsibility for the state of the building. ..

Yeah, the construction company shachou is saying he just followed the specs the architect created.

[Captain Japan]

[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri: More dodgy bldg data found
...According to Inoue Architect and Associates in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, principal contractor of the building, the architectural firm first placed orders with Aneha about four years ago, after a construction company executive introduced Aneha to the firm. Inoue has since requested designs for more than 10 buildings, including the Taito Ward building. "He [Aneha] sometimes could finish the work in a day, although other architects would take several days," an Inoue spokesman said. "We were grateful for Aneha's fast work. But looking back at it, he completed the jobs too quickly."

[Mulboyne]

Asahi: 4,996 buildings have risky, unsafe ceilings
Ceiling panels in nearly 5,000 gymnasiums, halls and other large-scale facilities nationwide are at risk of collapsing in an earthquake, a survey by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport showed Wednesday...The Building Standards Law stipulates that large facilities with ceiling panels suspended from wires must have fortification devices and other measures to prevent the panels from falling. But the ministry found that only 598 facilities without such measures have repair plans to bring their ceilings up to standard.

[amdg]

Asahi: 4,996 buildings have risky, unsafe ceilings
Ceiling panels in nearly 5,000 gymnasiums, halls and other large-scale facilities nationwide are at risk of collapsing in an earthquake, a survey by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport showed Wednesday...The Building Standards Law stipulates that large facilities with ceiling panels suspended from wires must have fortification devices and other measures to prevent the panels from falling. But the ministry found that only 598 facilities without such measures have repair plans to bring their ceilings up to standard.

Yes. Those ceiling panels in gymnasiums may fail under earthquake conditions, but at least our homes will be safe, with all of that government infrastructure standarization fortification security standards law.

Thank Gods the government is looking out for you – they know what earthquakes can do, and they stop it!

[Taro Toporific]

[quote="amdg"]Asahi.......but at least our homes will be safe, with all of that government infrastructure standarization fortification security standards law.
Thank Gods the government is looking out for you –]
The Japanese government pays bills while the architect takes the fall and contruction company goes scott free.

Gov't to cover all costs for scrapping defective buildings
japantoday, 5 Dec 2005 at 12:00am
The central government, together with local authorities, plans to shoulder all costs for dismantling condominiums that were designed using fabricated earthquake-resistance data, the Infrastructure, Land and Transport minister said Sunday. ...


Gov't files criminal complaints against Aneha
Monday, December 5, 2005 at 17:48 JST
TOKYO ---The infrastructure ministry filed criminal complaints with police against architect Hidetsugu Aneha on Monday for falsifying quake-proof data in structural plans for a number of condominium buildings and hotels in violation of the Building Standard Law...

[dingosatemybaby]

I'm curious what will become of the housing loans of the residents of the faulty mansions. Will they have to pay off the entire amount? Will the lenders offer any assistance? Lenders in the US seem to generally be willing to let mortgage holders "walk away" from a loan in negative-equity situations, knowing the borrower will likely resort to bankruptcy otherwise. However, negative equity is the norm in Japan, land of rapidly depreciating housing values, so I suspect lenders won't let the Aneha victims off the hook.

-dingo
-thinks "Huser" may be one of the most asinine company names he's ever seen in Japan. I suppose some moronic oyaji (is there any other kind?) conflated "human" and "user." "Yeah, Huser - that's the ticket!"

[IkemenTommy]

I wonder if the pissed off people started wrecking or light that Huser prez and Aneha's homes on fire. All those people that were involved should get their asses so whooped and not able to lead normal lives ever again. That would learn them not to fuck with people.

[dimwit]

So it now turns out that our 'architect' was a industrial high school.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20051208TDY03004.htm

According to a manager of an architectural office in Tokyo, disgraced architect Hidetsugu Aneha's structural calculations had gained a reputation in the industry for their simplicity and low cost.

Aneha came to Tokyo after graduating from an industrial high school in his native Miyagi Prefecture. He soon landed a job at a mid-sized general constructor. After a few years, he quit the company, saying he wanted to become an architect. He then landed a job at an architectural firm in Tokyo.

The entire story confuses me. First of all why are architects involved in making structural calculations which I would assume to be the job of a civil engineer?

It has been my (apparantly misguided) impression that architecture is an academic subject pursued by those who have an artistic bend to them. I guess in Japan being an architect means being a trainable tekkkie who found an alternate career path to being a construction flagman. I suppose this goes a long way to explaining the appearance of the modern Japanese city.

[cstaylor]

Aneha is just the scapegoat. All of those construction companies knew what was going on, and they paid off the politicians to look the other way (Huser was a huge contributor to Mori-ha last year... Koizumi is a member of Mori-ha).

Who has the least to gain from removing structural supports from a building? The architect. Who has the most to gain? The construction firm.

[Greji]

Aneha is just the scapegoat. All of those construction companies knew what was going on, and they paid off the politicians to look the other way (Huser was a huge contributor to Mori-ha last year... Koizumi is a member of Mori-ha).

Who has the least to gain from removing structural supports from a building? The architect. Who has the most to gain? The construction firm.

Why CST, I would be ashamed, blaming the great and prosperous construction industry of Japan of wrong doing. Sure they make a few small mistakes like accidentally using bamboo sticks for bracing instead of iron rods in the concrete pillars for all the freeways that collapsed during the Kobe earthquake. A simple oversight. Just because almost every political scandle has a pay off by a construction company or affiliate involved, you should not arbitrarily label them corrupt and bad. Why just think of all the good things they do like ahh, and ahh, well there probably is something good besides all the under-the-table connections with the Yamaguchi Gumi, if we think hard enough.

You should temper your judgement like the J-press does and put halos around their companies!

[Captain Japan]

Who has the least to gain from removing structural supports from a building? The architect. Who has the most to gain? The construction firm.

Aneha blames developers, questions inspectors
Mainichi

Under intense questioning in Japan's Diet, the architect at the center of a deepening construction scandal accused developers Wednesday of pressuring him to falsify earthquake-resistance data on dozens of buildings.

Hidetsugu Aneha also cast suspicion on inspection agencies who failed to spot his misdeeds, saying such falsified records -- which masked potentially catastrophic defects in hotels and condominiums -- should be easy to detect....more...

[Captain Japan]

If you want to build a home for the future then do it outside of Japan
Japan Times

Shortly after the quake-proofing scandal broke, Shukan Bunshun referred to the "hairstyle" of architect Hidetsugu Aneha as being just as much a "fabrication" (gizo) as the structural calculations he drew up for all those doomed condominiums. The joke was a telling one. Publicly exposing wig-wearers is a media taboo on the scale of outing homosexuals, and Bunshun's use of this less-than-relevant revelation in one of its headlines indicated that the gloves were off. Aneha's sins were so grave that anything could be thrown at him.

As the scandal has developed and implicated more and more people, Aneha has come to look like the unfortunate schmuck who got caught first. When he was the sole focus of enmity things were easy, but now that it appears the whole system is rotten, the media's coverage has become a babble of accusations, buck-passing and engineering jargon.

What the average person takes away from it all is something the media usually only hints at: Substandard dwellings are the norm in Japan. The country's housing construction industry is a racket that the government tolerates because it advocates a policy that places home-ownership at the center of the country's economy. Liberal Democratic Party Secretary General Tsutomu Takebe inadvertently said as much when he declared that something had to be done about the scandal right away "or the Japanese economy would be ruined." Some media criticized the remark, saying that Takebe was more concerned about general contractors than about homeowners, but it didn't change the truth of what he said. If consumers take the scandal seriously and stop buying homes, the country could be looking at a recession. The government is chiefly to blame since such a scandal was inevitable given its hands-off approach to the construction industry....more...

[gomichild]

I'm quite good mates with a couple of Japanese architects here. The documentation required is unbelievable.

Which leads me to suspect they all must have been involved. He's just taking the fall.

[Captain Japan]

[cstaylor]

They need to follow the money on this one. I'm sure it goes all the way up to ex-PM Mori (Huser supposedly contributed heavily to Mori-ha last year, and Koziumi is #2 in that organization).

[dingosatemybaby]

If you want to build a home for the future then do it outside of Japan
Japan Times

Shortly after the quake-proofing scandal broke, Shukan Bunshun referred to the "hairstyle" of architect Hidetsugu Aneha as being just as much a "fabrication" (gizo) as the structural calculations he drew up for all those doomed condominiums. The joke was a telling one. Publicly exposing wig-wearers is a media taboo on the scale of outing homosexuals, and Bunshun's use of this less-than-relevant revelation in one of its headlines indicated that the gloves were off. Aneha's sins were so grave that anything could be thrown at him.

As the scandal has developed and implicated more and more people, Aneha has come to look like the unfortunate schmuck who got caught first. When he was the sole focus of enmity things were easy, but now that it appears the whole system is rotten, the media's coverage has become a babble of accusations, buck-passing and engineering jargon.

What the average person takes away from it all is something the media usually only hints at: Substandard dwellings are the norm in Japan. The country's housing construction industry is a racket that the government tolerates because it advocates a policy that places home-ownership at the center of the country's economy. Liberal Democratic Party Secretary General Tsutomu Takebe inadvertently said as much when he declared that something had to be done about the scandal right away "or the Japanese economy would be ruined." Some media criticized the remark, saying that Takebe was more concerned about general contractors than about homeowners, but it didn't change the truth of what he said. If consumers take the scandal seriously and stop buying homes, the country could be looking at a recession. The government is chiefly to blame since such a scandal was inevitable given its hands-off approach to the construction industry....more...

Brasor's story is an excellent summary of the state of the housing industry here. Housing in Japan is commodity, a consumption good that depreciates, the opposite of the appreciating investment it can be in the West. Any possible investment potential in real estate in Japan lies in the land, and while land prices have been going up recently in some areas, the overall trend is pretty dire.

Anyone who would buy a new "mansion" in Japan is insane. Brasor's writes: "The features are dictated by Huser based on one strategy: give consumers large units with the appearance of something high-class while saving money on every other consideration, including, presumably, safety. So-called "designer mansions" are, according to architect Norihiko Dan, simply "boxes with makeup." Developers want to sell the illusion of a custom-built condo to people who can't afford custom-built condos. They look pretty on the outside and have lots of bells and whistles on the inside."

This is something Uncle Taro has been telling us for years: Japanese "mansions" are hepped-up with gimmicks and gadgets like LCD displays in the bathroom, showers that also act as clothes dryers, motion-sensor lights, etc. Buying one is like buying a car stuffed with expensive options. The depreciation hit the first buyer takes is ginormous. If you must buy a "mansion," buy one that's a few years old. You can remodel it if you like; the million or two yen you spend on new flooring, wallpaper, etc., will be massively offet by the ten or twenty million you'll save on the purchase price.

[Mulboyne]

This scandal and, to a lesser degree, the Tokyo Stock Exchange hiccups do support one of Alex Kerr's contentions in "Dogs and Demons" about how information is treated in Japan. Here he is on the subject in an interview:

I have a chapter on information, which I think is the first ever in English, by anybody, on how Japan handles information. That is a critically important subject that relates to Japan's failure to become a modern state, which is another central theme in the book. When information is hidden, lied about, mishandled etc. — as it is routinely in this country, from top to bottom — then you have a big problem from a modern technology point of view. That's why nuclear plants are failing, that's why milk isn't treated properly anymore. In America, hiding information is always a big mistake. In America, you get sued. In Japan, there are no penalties — no one ever sues, no one ever questions. Here, hiding information has been "for everybody's benefit"...One would feel better if one thought that there were all-knowing bureaucrats with secret files in which they kept the truth, even though they might be covering it up. The fact is that the ministries themselves have lost track.

I'm less inclined to go along with his broader thesis but his point is fairly clear:

My argument is that Japan is a FAILED case of modernization, that essentially modern technologies froze here somewhere between 1965 and 1970, and that in one single area, which was manufacturing, Japan continued — and even then at a slowed-down pace — to absorb technologies from abroad. But in every other area, it failed to acquire the technologies that are the mark of a modern state...Like how to run a hospital. How to run a zoo. How to run a museum. How to run a luxury resort, in fact, how to run a hotel, period. The hotel business here, it's a shambles. How to design: roads, retaining walls, and how to design new cities. These are very sophisticated modern technologies, and ones which this country lacks.

[cstaylor]

If I had to summarize it in one sentence, I would say that Japanese culture promotes absolute respect for authority, whether that respect is deserved or not. So much so that basic safeguards are not installed as their introduction could be considered insulting.

[Greji]

If I had to summarize it in one sentence, I would say that Japanese culture promotes absolute respect for authority, whether that respect is deserved or not. So much so that basic safeguards are not installed as their introduction could be considered insulting.

CST's right on track. There are those who profess to be modern and believe all information on everything most be open and above board with transparency in all dealings, but when it actually comes down to it, as long as there is not a problem that won't go away, they don't want to know about it or have controls on any such matters.

I have seen my office not want to put out an informational document on "what to do" and "what not to do", in our area of operation, simply because our counter-parts in the industry do not have similar guidelines and/or were unable to impliment them, when in fact, the document involved our operations only.

[dingosatemybaby]

If I had to summarize it in one sentence, I would say that Japanese culture promotes absolute respect for authority, whether that respect is deserved or not. So much so that basic safeguards are not installed as their introduction could be considered insulting.

A classic example is the tradition of Japanese doctors not informing their patients they have cancer, a tradition that continues, astonishingly, to this very day. Both doctors and patients have told me that they prefer it that way (though many in both groups do not). Ignorance is no more blissful than in Japan.

-dingo
-reading assignment: Simulacra and Simulation
-yes, Japan is The Matrix

[Greji]

If I had to summarize it in one sentence, I would say that Japanese culture promotes absolute respect for authority, whether that respect is deserved or not. So much so that basic safeguards are not installed as their introduction could be considered insulting.

A classic example is the tradition of Japanese doctors not informing their patients they have cancer, a tradition that continues, astonishingly, to this very day. Both doctors and patients have told me that they prefer it that way (though many in both groups do not). Ignorance is no more blissful than in Japan.

-dingo
-reading assignment: Simulacra and Simulation
-yes, Japan is The Matrix

This also is correct. There has been a recent enlighted surge, where some hospitals will tell you if you have cancer. However, this will only occur if you ask before hand and then they will then agree and will actually tell you. The majority prefer to go with the traditional "don't ask, don't", unless you personally pin them down!

[maraboutslim]

A classic example is the tradition of Japanese doctors not informing their patients they have cancer, a tradition that continues, astonishingly, to this very day. Both doctors and patients have told me that they prefer it that way (though many in both groups do not). Ignorance is no more blissful than in Japan.

Yeah, doesn't it totally suck that there are people out there who have a different approach to health, treatment, and ultimately, death? How dare they!

-reading assignment: Simulacra and Simulation

Baudrillard? What, is it the 80s again?

[dingosatemybaby]

A classic example is the tradition of Japanese doctors not informing their patients they have cancer, a tradition that continues, astonishingly, to this very day. Both doctors and patients have told me that they prefer it that way (though many in both groups do not). Ignorance is no more blissful than in Japan.

Yeah, doesn't it totally suck that there are people out there who have a different approach to health, treatment, and ultimately, death? How dare they!

-reading assignment: Simulacra and Simulation

Baudrillard? What, is it the 80s again?

Got anything constructive to say, maraboutslim, or just the snide comment? Some Japanese, doctors as well as patients, say that shielding terminal cancer patients from the reality of their condition is an act of compassion. What do YOU think? Man up and provide some positive input.