Like half of the buildings are non-resistant since they are old and made of wood. IIRC only buildings built after 1991 are guaranteed to be earthquake resistant.

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markdown an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Earthquakes didn't start in 1991. The Japanese have always had to live with earthquakes and build accordingly.

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klausa an hour ago | parent [-]

For a long time "live with earthquakes and build accordingly" meant "make it easy to rebuild", not "engineer the structures to withstand the earthquakes".

	▲	egeozcan an hour ago \| parent [-]
		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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crest an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

One of the reasons Japan uses wood for construction is that combined with their traditional building techniques it results in earthquake resistant buildings.