Asahi Kasei President Apologizes Over Tilting Yokohama Condo Building

TOKYO, JAPAN - OCT. 20: Asahi Kasei Corp. President Toshio Asano on Tuesday apologized for a subsidiary's defective piling work and data falsification related to a tilting condominium building south of Tokyo, a scandal that has stoked safety concerns over thousands of buildings the subsidiary has worked on. "I deeply, deeply regret and apologize. I'm very sorry for the residents," Asano said in his first press conference since the major chemical maker last week admitted Asahi Kasei Construction Materials Co. falsified data on piling work for construction of the four-building condominium complex in Yokohama about 10 years ago. At the press conference jointly attended by senior officials of Asahi Kasei and Asahi Kasei Construction Materials, the executives reiterated the matter is still "under investigation," including whether a person who held a key on-site position fabricated data to hide defective piling work. Asahi Kasei is examining the matter through an in-house investigation panel led by vice president Masahito Hirai, and has also said it will form a team of outsiders including lawyers to increase the credibility of its probe. According to Hirai, the key person, who is now a contract worker for Asahi Kasei Construction Materials, has argued that he thought all the piles reached bedrock, and that data was fabricated not to hide insufficient work but to make up for missing data records. "But because we believe there are some defects (in the piling work)... we have to check the detailed situation of the 70 piles (for which data falsification has been discovered) to confirm" the truth, Hirai said. Falsified were readings of an electric current measuring instrument and the amount of cement poured into the pile tips. Of the piles, six are believed to have not reached solid ground called the support layer, and two were not driven deep enough into the layer, apparently leading one of the four condo buildings to have developed a tilt.