FUKUOKA (Kyodo) Three architects categorically denied allegations Thursday that they had falsified quake-resistance data for eight condominium buildings and a hotel in Fukuoka and Kumamoto prefectures.
The nine buildings -- three condominium buildings in the city of Fukuoka, and five condo buildings and a hotel in Kumamoto Prefecture -- have been found vulnerable to major temblors because they were built using fabricated building data, authorities announced Wednesday night.
All the structures were built by the failed Kimura Construction Co., based in the city of Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Prefecture.
Kimura Construction, which built many defective condominium complexes and budget hotels across the country, collapsed in December after its link with disgraced architect Hidetsugu Aneha was revealed.
The nine buildings are the first whose structural data were found to have been fabricated by someone other than Aneha, who is known to have fabricated such data for 97 buildings in 18 prefectures.
A 73-year-old architect who compiled the structural data for a condo building in Ozu, Kumamoto Prefecture, said Thursday that there were no fabricated data used in constructing the structure.
He claimed the building's quake resistance is 100 percent to 120 percent of legal requirements because the data were worked out for 16 units in the 720-sq.-meter building.
While the Kumamoto Prefectural Government says the building has 21 condos within an 840-sq.-meter space, the architect said Kimura Construction may have made changes later.