(Voice actor) Ms.Marilyn Lo

In modern Japan, there are high-rise apartments everywhere. In Tokyo, there are many high-rise buildings and high-rise apartments in Shinjuku, Ikebukuro, and Kasumigaseki, a government office town. For Japan, a small country, high-rise buildings are must-haves. However, Japan is not well-suited to build high-rise buildings because of the earthquakes. There are many earthquakes in Japan and it is said that 20% of all earthquakes in the entire world above magnitude 6 occur in Japan and surrounding areas. There have been several earthquakes in the capital, Tokyo, as well. Aside from the Great Kanto earthquake in 1923 that caused extensive damages to Tokyo, there was the magnitude 7 Tokyo earthquake in 1894 too. Therefore, even though in the US a high-rise building taller than 100 meters was built in Chicago in 1889, Japan could not build a building above 10 stories even in the 1960’s. In a country with no fear of earthquakes, it was possible to build high-rise buildings using light construction materials. In Japan, to build a building that could withstand earthquakes, it had to be a massive building using heavy materials. Therefore, the taller the building, the weight of the materials would become greater, so buildings over a certain height could not be built. If a high-rise building was built like that, there would be considerable damage. Japanese architects wanted to realize high-rise architecture by any means. While Japan was developing economically, the land to construct buildings for corporations to conduct business activities was limited. To effectively utilize the land, and for many corporations to conduct businesses, high-rise buildings that hundreds of companies could move into was needed in Tokyo. However, the American construction method cannot be applied in Japan because of the earthquakes. So, Japan had to come up with their own method. Architects started to examine historical structures that has remained in Japan from a long time ago in search of clues. The architects used the Kaneiji Five-story Pagoda in Ueno as a reference. The Kaneiji Five-story Pagoda is a 32-meter pagoda built in 1639. The Pagoda withstood the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923. The architects thought that, by analyzing the structure that withstood the massive earthquake, they could find the clue for high-rise structures. The architects went inside the Kaneiji Five-story Pagoda, and they were amazed. It was built in a way that would largely change the way people thought about construction. What was the way that it was built that brought Japanese high-rise structures?