Comment by markdown
21 hours ago
Earthquakes didn't start in 1991. The Japanese have always had to live with earthquakes and build accordingly.
21 hours ago
Earthquakes didn't start in 1991. The Japanese have always had to live with earthquakes and build accordingly.
For a long time "live with earthquakes and build accordingly" meant "make it easy to rebuild", not "engineer the structures to withstand the earthquakes".
In Gölcük/İzmit, there was a huge 7.4 earthquake in 99.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_%C4%B0zmit_earthquake
It took around 10 years until the city felt "normal" again (source: a close friend lives there).
My point is, it's never easy to rebuild.
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The regulations got hardened in 1991. Obviously there has been earthquakes forever, but the buildings were not built to withstand them. That's one of the reasons why Japanese do not buy old homes: they are not earthquake proof.