A YouTube video of a scene from inside a high-rise in central Tokyo captures the chilling moment a building swaying from the massive earthquake of March 11, 2011. The 51 seconds of footage shows office workers cowering on the 48th floor of the Shinjuku Nomura Building.
Makoto Ikuta, general manager of the office building management department of Nomura Real Estate Development Co., was in the building that day. "It shook for a long time and was the biggest source of fear among the tenants," he said. The building's shaking lasted for about 10 minutes.
And now, 5½ years later, the major developer has completed installment of a vibration control system to reduce mechanical vibrations and shorten the duration of shaking in the aging building, which is not equipped with seismic isolators like the modern structures of today.