Fraud shakes nation at its foundations

Shoddy builders are the butt of jokes everywhere, but in a country struck by thousands of earthquakes a year, solid foundations are a deadly serious business.

So when Japanese architect Hidetsugu Aneha admitted he had faked reports on the structural soundness of dozens of his buildings, he was shown little mercy.

Aneha was forced into hiding following a roasting from media commentators who mocked his bad toupee, his unconvincing mea culpa and his apparent inability to read construction manuals.

Before he disappeared, the 48-year-old apologised but said it "wasn't completely" his fault that at least 20 apartment blocks and one hotel will have to be pulled down because of his fraud.

The Tokyo area, which sits on one of the planet's most unstable geological foundations, boasts notoriously tough building regulations. But Aneha discovered in 2002 that he could build faster by simply ignoring the more expensive rules, such as the requirement that concrete be reinforced with thick steel bars.

"I felt pressure from the industry's overall trend to seek speed and low cost," Aneha said, adding that he was "too busy" to feel guilty.

"I started faking reports because I wanted to get more contracts. But as I started to receive more offers, I kept [faking reports] to get the work done."

The damage from the Aneha scandal is only starting to sink in. Government inspectors are checking hundreds of buildings nationwide and Kyodo News has already uncovered at least 14 hotels and 21 apartment blocks unlikely to withstand a strong earthquake. A 14-storey Tokyo hotel that opened in August has been ordered to close its doors.

Factor in the billions of yen in damages, the hundreds of families who will have to find new homes and several suicides linked to the scandal, and the whole business looks very messy. But many fear that this is the tip of a huge iceberg.

The Ministry of Infrastructure has found 62 doomed buildings designed by Aneha alone, and he is just one of more than 300,000 licensed Japanese architects employed to smooth the passage of building designs past beady-eyed construction bureaucrats.

A combination of dwindling open land and new construction technology has also driven buildings relentlessly skyward since the 1980s and Tokyo now boasts a fresh crop of gleaming skyscrapers. Nobody really knows how these buildings will stand up if a big earthquake strikes.

What has shocked many is how easily the rules can be bent by resourceful men such as Aneha, who was responsible for submitting construction documents to local councils.

Once vetted, there is little follow-up and since 1999 private firms have been allowed to check building progress on behalf of local authorities.

Japan has spouted 122 of these firms, which last year vetted 420,000 building designs.

The Government has promised 8 billion yen in compensation to Aneha's victims and has begun housing some in temporary public flats.

- INDEPENDENT