Police began an on-site inspection Thursday of a Tokyo condominium complex built using fabricated quake-resistance data while demolition of the building was under way.
The inspection of Stage Daimon in Minato Ward marks the first police probe of any of the buildings involved in the quake-resistance data fabrication scandal, which broke in November and has led to scores of hotel and condominium complex closures and evictions.
The inspection follows a criminal complaint filed in December by the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry that disgraced architect Hidetsugu Aneha, 48, fabricated the faulty design data in violation of the Building Standard Law.
Stage Daimon is one of three condo complexes and a hotel in the capital over which the ministry filed the criminal accusation.
The operation was conducted by a joint squad of about 30 officers from the Tokyo, Chiba and Kanagawa police, some equipped with goggles and dust masks, to examine the structure and count the number of steel reinforcement bars by breaking apart the concrete.
The inspection of the buildings, whose quake resistance is only 26 percent of that required under state-set criteria, is expected to last three to four days, police said.
Fukuoka-based property developer Shinoken Co. has started dismantling the nine-story, eight-unit slender rental condo structure, which has a total floor space of 384 sq. meters and is described as a "pencil" building.
All the residents have moved out of the building, which was completed last March.
The investigative squad also plans to check the complex against the building plans to investigate any defects on the part of the builder, the failed Kimura Construction Co. of Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Prefecture, they said.
The land ministry has found that more than 90 buildings were built using data fabricated by Aneha.
Police plan to conduct such on-site probes on some 30 of the buildings.
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