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Japan
AsiaEast Asia

Don’t worry. 634m Tokyo Skytree is earthquake proof. Maybe

  • Company that quake-proofed more than 1,000 buildings – including two Olympic venues – admits falsifying tests and using cheap equipment
  • Japanese government swoops in with assurances that everything’s okay – prompting some to draw parallels to 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster

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Why you can trust SCMP
The Tokyo Skytree, one of the city’s top attractions, is one of the buildings that features components made by KYB. Photo: Alamy
Julian Ryall
The Japanese government has moved quickly to play down suggestions that more than 1,000 buildings across the nation – including at least two venues for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and the 634-metre-tall Tokyo Skytree – are at risk of collapsing in a major earthquake.

But an awful lot of people do not trust that declaration.

The infrastructure ministry said last week there was “no chance” that some of Japan’s most iconic buildings – which also include Tokyo Station, the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower and hospital, university and local government properties – would collapse after KYB Corporation admitted the previous day that it had been falsifying quality inspection data for seismic shock absorbers since March 2000.

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Pedestrians outside Tokyo Station, one of the buildings affected by the scandal surrounding KYB’s admission it falsified data about its seismic shock absorbers. Photo: AP
Pedestrians outside Tokyo Station, one of the buildings affected by the scandal surrounding KYB’s admission it falsified data about its seismic shock absorbers. Photo: AP

Incorporated into the structures of buildings, the equipment is designed to absorb and control the impact of earthquakes, to which Japan is notoriously prone. KYB controls around 40 per cent of the Japanese market for some types of shock absorbers and vibration dampers and the ministry believes that 7,550 absorbers at 903 structures and 3,378 dampers at a further 83 sites fall short of government standards. For now, the scandal appears limited to the domestic market, though a company official confirmed to the South China Morning Post that equipment had been installed in at least one building in Taiwan.

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The Roppongi Hills Mori Tower is another of the buildings affected by the scandal surrounding KYB, which has admitted falsifying the test data of its seismic shock absorbers. File photo
The Roppongi Hills Mori Tower is another of the buildings affected by the scandal surrounding KYB, which has admitted falsifying the test data of its seismic shock absorbers. File photo
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