Shoji Nakamori, a Class-A qualified architect and former president of the defunct design firm Something、talks to reporters in Fukuoka on Feb. 9.

The three buildings, all in the city of Fukuoka, were designed with falsified quake-resistance data provided by the design firm Something, which has since gone out of business.

Shoji Nakamori, an architect with Class-1 qualifications and former president of Something, acknowledged the design office used the fake data but claimed the firm did not intend to fabricate data to make the buildings less structurally sound, ministry officials said.

Nakamori reportedly told Fukuoka city officials that despite using falsified data, the calculation was legitimate, they said.

But recalculations commissioned by city authorities later found two of the three buildings had substandard quake resistance, the ministry officials said.

One nine-story building was found to be 15 percent below the minimum standard for earthquake resistance while another nine-story structure was found to be 10 percent short.

The Japan Times Weekly: Feb. 18, 2006
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