Overview
- An expert committee for the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism released a final report draft on December 12 outlining multiple causes of the Wajima collapse.
- Investigators found breakage at the tips of foundation piles and damage at pile-to-structure connections under the seven-story building.
- The structure was completed in 1975, using piles installed before current standards that require seismic inspection of foundations.
- Soft ground at the site is cited as a contributing factor that interacted with foundation weaknesses to produce the overturning.
- Asahi Shimbun reports the committee views this type of pile-supported building overturn as unprecedented in Japan, and MLIT will examine safety measures for similar pre-2001 buildings.