Twenty-five prefectural governments are providing subsidies, technical assistance or both to owners of houses and buildings for earthquake-resistance checks, according to figures compiled by Kyodo News on Wednesday.

Among the 25 prefectural governments, 21 provide subsidies, 12 dispatch engineers and eight do both, according to a survey of prefectures taken from early to mid-December.

Only 18 prefectures said they give subsidies or extend low-interest loans to home owners for structural reinforcement work, the survey revealed.

Of those that do, 15 provide subsidies and five offer low-interest loans. Only two -- Toyama and Hyogo -- provide both subsidies and low-interest loans. An additional 15 say they plan to provide some form of assistance, while eight have no such plans.

The structural soundness of buildings has come under the spotlight after it emerged in November that a number of condominium complexes and hotels around the country are vulnerable to major temblors because they were built using fabricated quake-resistance data.

Hidetsugu Aneha, a disgraced architect who was stripped of his license in early December, is alleged to have taken part in a scam to design and build cut-rate condos and hotels based on faked quake-resistance data. So far, 89 buildings buildings in 18 prefectures -- 48 condo high-rises, 38 hotels and three houses -- built using falsified data have been discovered.

According to the survey, 18 prefectural governments believe the central government's assistance for retrofitting work is "insufficient."

The central government is aiming to increase the share of structures expected to remain standing in the event of a major temblor to 90 percent by 2015 from 75 percent in 2003.

But 28 of the 47 prefectures see no major progress efforts to increase the share.

The state currently provides municipal governments with up to 8 percent of building retrofitting costs, but in only 12 designated earthquake-prone regions.