In a country that soaks up nearly 10 percent of the energy released worldwide by earthquakes, admiring the skyscrapers equally raises the specter of them falling down.

As early as 1891, it was suggested that buildings be mounted on layers of logs laid at right angles. By allowing slight horizontal movements in each layer, it was believed a quake's tremors would be absorbed rather than transmitted upward.

Following 1923's Great Kanto Earthquake, though, architects were compelled to design buildings conformable to the stricter standards of the revised Urban Area Building Law of 1924. Further legislation in 1950 produced the Standard Architecture Law, still in force today.