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".

	▲	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.