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Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

8 suspects in fake quake resistance data arrested, questionable legal system remains

The national police, including the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, on April 26 arrested disqualified architect Aneha Hidetsugu and seven other people who were allegedly involved in the falsification of quake-resistance data of apartment buildings and hotels, on suspicion of violating various construction business related laws, including the false entry by a private building inspection company of the amount of its capital.

Police are focusing their probe on the data falsification scandal. It is seen against the background of the fierce cost-cutting race in the construction industry and the lax inspection procedures by private inspection companies.

In 1998, the Building Standards Law was adversely revised to allow private sector companies to conduct inspections of building safety as part of deregulation measures.

Former Japanese Communist Party House of Representatives member Nakajima Taketoshi, who objected to the 1998 adverse revision of the building Standards Law, said, "I warned in the Diet that privatizing building inspections will probably result in the prevalence of faulty inspections. The Aneha incident is my concern coming true." Nakajima also said that the government should take responsibility for violating the public trust in administrative control over construction as the custodian of people's lives and property.

On behalf of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, lawyer Furoshima Makoto said, "Habitation in a safe house is a fundamental human right." He pointed out the need for government responsibility to set up a mechanism for rigorous inspections and review of the laws in order to eliminate defective housings.

An owner resident of an apartment building in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture, which is in danger of collapsing in the event of a strong earthquake measuring an upper five on the Japanese intensity scale of seven, said, "I fear that the arrests may close the case. The state must be held responsible for allowing the falsified data to pass. We want the state to compensate us for our damage."

A president of a hotel built using faulty data in Aichi Prefecture asked if there is any good in inspections that cannot detect falsification. He called for building laws to be revised so as not to have another such incident.
- Akahata, April 27, 2006