Japan OKs package for shaky buildings
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-06 17:14

Japan's Cabinet approved measures Tuesday to demolish buildings designed using falsified earthquake safety data and to relocate residents amid a widening construction scandal.

The package covers the demolition of the defective buildings, provides public housing for displaced residents and allows them to postpone loan payments for the destroyed units.

"Our main goal right now is to guarantee the safety of the people living in these buildings," Land, Infrastructure and Transport Minister Kazuo Kitagawa told reporters.

The government will spend $66 million on the package, the Nihon Keizai newspaper reported earlier Tuesday.

Kitagawa said the government would demand compensation from companies involved in the construction and sale of faulty buildings. It will also set up a center to handle inquiries from citizens worried about building safety, help cities pay for building inspections, and audit architectural safety agencies accused of approving the flawed construction plans.

So far, the ministry has confirmed that 57 defective buildings �� the majority of them hotels �� are at risk of collapsing in a moderately strong earthquake.

On Monday, the ministry filed a criminal complaint against architect Hidetsugu Aneha, who admitted to violating quake safety regulations to cut costs on at least 21 of the faulty buildings. The ministry also reportedly planned to file criminal charges against builders who worked with Aneha.

"We need to pursue their civil and criminal responsibility for this problem," Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said.

The residents whose buildings are earmarked for demolition stand to lose at least $116 million, the ministry has said.

The scandal has sparked safety concerns and outrage in Japan, one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries. The government has upgraded building standards since a magnitude-7.2 quake killed more than 6,400 people in the western port city of Kobe in 1995.