The revised Act for Promotion of the Earthquake Proof Retrofit of Buildings took effect Thursday amid mounting concerns over quake-resistance due to the recently revealed widespread use of faked design data from disgraced architect Hidetsugu Aneha in shoddily built hotels and condominium complexes.
The Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry hopes the revised law will encourage the repair and reinforcement of structures that do not meet current quake-resistance standards because they were built before the 1981 revision of quake-proofing standards stipulated in the Building Standards Law, unlike the structures linked to the latest scandal.
Under the law, a building must be designed to withstand a quake with an intensity level of upper-6 or higher on the Japanese scale to 7.