Japan's Standards vs Rest of the World
Japan's Standards vs Rest of the World
(OP)
First of all, this is meant to be more of an informative topic and discussion. It is not meant to be offensive to anyone as this is obviously a very emotional time in Japan.
For the past few days, I have heard and read that everyone is lucky that Japan has such high building and engineering standards for seismic events. In my opinion, they should be one of the leaders in this knowledge since they experience more high seismic events than the rest of the world.
However, it got me to thinking about it and since I only do work with the US building codes and am completely ignorant of Japan's codes. How much more advanced are their codes from the rest of the worlds? Or is it just a matter that they have similar codes but that their base shears are so much higher that they have to create buildings for these events?
Does anyone have any practical experience with this?
For the past few days, I have heard and read that everyone is lucky that Japan has such high building and engineering standards for seismic events. In my opinion, they should be one of the leaders in this knowledge since they experience more high seismic events than the rest of the world.
However, it got me to thinking about it and since I only do work with the US building codes and am completely ignorant of Japan's codes. How much more advanced are their codes from the rest of the worlds? Or is it just a matter that they have similar codes but that their base shears are so much higher that they have to create buildings for these events?
Does anyone have any practical experience with this?






RE: Japan's Standards vs Rest of the World
As another note, and the Sumatra tsunami serves as comparison, it also would be amazing if they managed to have under 10000 victims toll for a thing like this. It is not only that the warning systems were operative, the population should also be, otherwise such kind of result would be unlikely. After the Sumatra toll, we look in disbelief the official numbers given even as of now 5 days later, yet they could be the product of ability and awareness.
RE: Japan's Standards vs Rest of the World
RE: Japan's Standards vs Rest of the World
RE: Japan's Standards vs Rest of the World
Then Kobe hit and they got a real wake up call... even for may structures that were new and designed well according to their standards at the time.
Not sure what they've done since then. But, since it's been less than 20 years since Kobe, my guess is that only the relatively new construction has any significant ductility.