Toho Housing Co. has bought back all 32 units of a Tokyo condominium complex constructed with data fabricated by disgraced architect Hidetsugu Aneha and started razing the structure with a plan to rebuild it, company sources said Thursday.
The Tokyo-based real estate developer agreed in talks with condo owners to pay them amounts close to their purchase prices.
Toho Housing will be the first realtor to buy back condos found vulnerable to major temblors after they were built using the faked data.
It is one of the 26 condo buildings whose quake-resistance data Aneha had fabricated. The condo's strength against quakes was 59 percent of that required.
The residents had all moved out of the nine-story complex in Tokyo's Ota Ward by the end of July, the sources said.
The complex was certified by building inspection agency Japan ERI Co. in May 2005 and was completed in June 2003.
"Demolition is the best way to fix the company's image, damaged by the data fabrication," a Toho Housing official said.
The developer, which began demolishing the complex in mid-August, plans to erect a new complex on the same site.
Quake-resistance data fabrication by Aneha has been confirmed in nearly 100 buildings across 18 prefectures, and nine people have been arrested in connection with the fiasco.
Aneha goes on trial before the Tokyo District Court on Sept. 6, charged with allowing an unlicensed architect to serve illegally as his proxy.