Suspected substandard walls found at 15 schools in quake-hit Osaka

The education board told a press conference that following the warning, it checked the wall in February 2016. After visually assessing the structure and hitting it with a stick, board staff judged it to be safe.

But the board also said the two officials who inspected the wall did not have any architectural qualifications.

While apologizing for its failure to prevent the death, the board said it did not view the wall as being in violation of the law and considered it posed no problem as there were no cracks.

You couldn't make this stuff up. Hit it with a stick. Is this the revered senmonka culture that I've been told about. Again, laws on the books that are as meaningless as the paper they're written on.

Local police are looking at her death as a possible case of professional negligence.

Possible!? If I were this girl's dad, I'd be tracking down board members with a stick.

Not only are the walls dangerous as has been proven by the quake, they are also a major eyesore in Japan's towns. Tear down the walls Mr. Abe!!

Would like to hear something about how many inspections have taken place throughout Osaka-fu and the entire country for that matter.

Only 15? Better check again. Oh and while you're at it, how about checking schools nation wide. Before another child is killed. Why must someone die before action is taken. Please tell me they're not doing Cost Analysis and finding it is cheaper to loose lives than fix the problems.

The board inspected 59 city-run schools in Takatsuki, 

So, 15 out of 59 in Takatsuki alone, meaning a bit over 25% of the total! Do the math for the rest of Osaka and that compounds the problem even further.

Here is to hoping that the authorities take this tragedy to heart and learn what "prevention" means!

Why do Japanese residental areas need huge gray concrete walls? My neighborhood has lots of these, and parts of it resemble a prison block. They also block sunlight and visibilty. Let's hear it for fences and hedges.

Why are they only checking schools? Everywhere should be checked, street by street.

NHK had a good segment on this the other night. They had a gentleman on who pointed out this hazard 2 or 3 years ago. The school administrator was then interviewed and she openly admitted this problem existed and they were aware of the guy's report (a University professor I believe). It sounds like the city was responsible for the wall however (at least that is the way I took it).

Now let's see if they do something about it. I hope they do with a sense of urgency.

If this had happened in the U.S. the school administrator would have not admitted awareness of this hazard or they would have not spoken to the media. The issue would have been resolved using a legal process and a large lawsuit would have followed. If other similar risks existed maybe they would be repaired.

It is interesting (as an American) to see the difference in how these issues are handled. There are times where i see the value of both approaches.

In the end a poor girl died in what was a reasonably foreseeable accident. There are times when politicians try to capitalize on tragedy. In this case I would not mind if some politician tried to capitalize on this and actually fixed all these walls (I would not mind them doing this only if they acted and actually got it done).

After visually assessing the structure and hitting it with a stick, board staff judged it to be safe.

Not sure a stick is what I would use but then again, I'm not qualified in these matters.

But the board also said the two officials who inspected the wall did not have any architectural qualifications.

If it weren't so serious, it would be funny.

Why can Japan never learn? It's n not like this has never happened before - it happens over and over again. These things should be so obvious in an earthquake prone country, yet the same things happen again and again.

In one part of Japan the schools are killing children through gross negligence while in another civil servants are apologising because someone went to lunch 3 minutes early.

Japanese government response = 400 meetings then suck air and utter the word Shoganai after which more contracts are offered to cronies/Yakuza businesses to build more faulty products = problem solved Japanese corporate style

JeffLee

My house is walled by hedges. People choose concrete walls since they are cheap in maintaining. Once they are built they remain long while hedge fences must be taken care two times a year. I ask gardeners. It costs a lot of money.

@econstats - I hope you are correct.

About the U.S. - Much of the infrastructure is in very poor condition, including the interstate system. Bridges are in disrepair and we have had a couple of failures in recent years. Amtrak is a joke, and as you mention the NY subway system is falling apart. I am a native of California and in Northern CA we have BART and in SF, Muni. Both systems are showing their age, are usually filthy, and are becoming less safe (I remember riding BART when it opened - wow time flies).

I do not have the level of confidence you do about this being fixed in 5 years in Japan (I really truly hope I am wrong) but I agree the U.S. does not have the ability to work together to solve problems (look how divided people have become).

I have seen some remarkable things happen here in Japan and once something is decided the ability to move forward is really good. It is the process of getting from identifying the issue to taking action which seems to take time (and sometimes stalls).

@tokyo. To sue will take desparetely needed funds from the school. Just legal fees alone could change all the squat toilets to western style in the whole school. The cost of the settlement could buy a new gym.

i worked in Takatsuki for over 5 years before. Although there are flash apartments around the JR station and university, most people are poor and struggling. Many are young families who can’t afford Osaka central areas, and some I know were relocated after the great Hanshin earthquake living in state housing even now.

taking money from schools will make their plight worse.

More responsible to the accident is construction companies which built the substandard walls than the school or the city. Maybe they are finding difficulties to find the builders of 50 years ago.

Always surprised that a rich country like Japan doesn’t spend much on education whilst its airports are well maintained and run......

The wall, reaching as high as about 3.5 meters including its 1.9-meter foundation, was made of blocks piled up higher than legal standards with insufficient reinforcement. Basically no Rebar.

Rebar (short for reinforcing bar), collectively known as reinforcing steel and reinforcement steel, is a steel bar or mesh of steel wires used as a tension device in reinforced concrete and reinforced masonry structures to strengthen and hold the concrete in compression.

Goodlucktoyou - i worked in Takatsuki for over 5 years before. Although there are flash apartments around the JR station and university, most people are poor and struggling.

You are totally wrong. Takatsuki is a thriving middle-class suburb of Osaka. There are a number of wealthy neighborhoods - Hiyoshidai, Takamidai, Nanpeidai, among them. There are more than a few "flash" apartments around the JR station. There are many expensive condos, with new ones popping up constantly. We even got a brand new interchange for the Meishin and Shin-Meishin Expressways.

Even the "poor" area around Settsu-Tonda has seen growth and improvement. Perhaps your job dealt with residents of one of those poorer areas. Or, maybe it was over 10 years ago, before a lot of development began. Takatsuki has no more than surrounding suburbs of Osaka, like Ibaraki, Minou, Suita, etc.

But, getting back to the main point, if it is the school's fault that this wall remained, especially after being warned, then it is their responsibility to compensate the family. (Although, no financial compensation could ever make up for such a loss.) Or, if it's the city's fault, then they should pay. Takatsuki does not appear to be hurting financially.

Tokyo-Engr - I am in no way in favor of suing actually as this is a particularly "American" way to solve problems...

There is no shortage of lawsuits, or the threat of lawsuits that lead to out-of-court settlements, in Japan.

@gary yes there are lawsuits in Japan but it pales in comparison to my country of citizenship, the U.S.

Complete and utter hogwash. I have been talking to some BOE and city officials about this issue and they said that they have no choice but to say the majority of the walls are safe, even if they are not, because they don't have the funds to replace all of them. So, if they do not surpass a certain height, they are deemed "safe" like in the lunacy above. And nothing will be done about the dead child but a "Sumimasen" and a "shouganai", and when it happens again, which it will, there will be the added, "How could we have known? But sorry for failing... even though we didn't know it would happen... so sorry".

professional negligence Yahtzee

hitting it with a stick

This is not the 1950's, they did the same stupid thing after the expressway tunnel fell on that car and killed them. This does not work and this earthquake is proof!

Now as result, Japan knows there is a problem and will quickly address the issue.

No. They already knew there was a problem. It took someone getting killed for it to be admitted. That is not what I call having its "act together."

1978 it was recommended that buttressed walls was the go. that's 40 years ago and still it's not the norm. Just a "recommended" action maybe in another 40 years and several deaths latter it might become the norm.

Without frequent clipping, hedges grow, making the path even narrower and forcing people into the vehicle area. 

True. An alternative might be bamboo. There are varieties of height and thickness that make it suitable for screening.

I doubt it was a "stick" - more likely a mallet. When water penetrates concrete and the rebar rusts, it creates voids which skilled engineers can audibly discern by tapping the exterior. Most concrete structures such as buildings and bridges must by law be inspected periodically, but no such law exists for concrete block walls. Thus, even many may appear safe, they are not. I'd guestimate that some 20% of the concrete block walls in Kumamoto toppled during the quake (which fortunately happened when most were home asleep).

Options to hedges and wire fencing include lightweight polymer bricks which are thinner (thus saving space), just as cheap to install and maintain, have the same lifespan, are far more attractive - and are much, much safer.

Basically no Rebar.

I don't think that's exactly the case. The problem was the shortness of the connecting rods between the lower and upper portions of the wall, allowing the top portion to topple. Photos show that the top portion fell as one piece, suggesting that portion had been adequately reinforced. Ironically, it may have been better if it hadn't as it may have broken up and fallen as smaller pieces.

One reason these problems are not taken care of is because there is no consequence for not doing so. My daughter was hurt in a Japanese school, requiring two months of hospitalization, a child from another family died in an accident at the same school when he was left alone, unsupervised.

What happened as a result these incidents? Some profuse apologies, and nothing else. No lawyer we or the other family talked to would dare sue, even though the school and staff admitted to being negligent. Weeks of worry, hospital visits, doctors, city investigators, lots of missed work, and end of story. The same people who admitted to negligence are still doing their jobs, the school seems to have done nothing at all. It’s quite terrible to see pain and even death, but no justice.

This sounds like the Fukushima disaster. They were warned by experts, but they thought they knew better and chose not to do what they had to do. So it takes people's lives for them to finally act. I wonder how many more situations like these will have to happen for them to finally understand.

Educator60 your point? 40 years ago this was a problem? The building codes are great but in effect useless no penalty no accountability. A girl was squashed because no one cared enough. When the rules are treated as a guidelines, fuzzy at best the result is disaster.

looks like the city started to tear down walls yesterday. NHK had a good segment on it. There was rebar in the walls torn down but rebar does not do much for this type of wall as the bricks or segments don't bond well if at all. Anyway it sounds like all walls near schools are intended to be removed.