Minoru Mori

The investigators interviewed Minoru Mori, 70, suspecting his Tokyo property management company and the distributor of the doors, Sanwa Tajima Corp., may be liable for failing to take preventive steps even though they knew that there had been similar, but non-fatal, accidents, including one Dec. 7, 2003, in which a 6-year-old girl was seriously injured.

The automatic revolving door at one of the buildings in Tokyo's Roppongi Hills complex where a 6-year-old boy was fatally crushed.

Executives of Sanwa Tajima, based in Tokyo, are being questioned over whether there were any structural flaws in the automatic revolving doors or mismanagement in servicing them, according to the police.

On March 26, 6-year-old Ryo Mizokawa died when he got his head stuck between a revolving door and the door frame as he rushed into it ahead of his mother at the second-floor front entrance of Mori Tower building in Roppongi Hills.

The Mizokawas and Mori Building reached an out-of-court settlement in September.

The Japan Times Weekly: Nov. 6, 2004
(C) All rights reserved