I have received a few messages worring about the damage of our building that I mentioned in my announcement yesterday, and I would like to thank you all for your kind concerns. I apologize if my note made you worried about the building or Shaken. The damage was caused in the Akamon building, not the main Shaken building. Moreover, it was actually not exactly a "damage," as it turned out.

There was no damage at all to the main Shaken building, thanks to the quake-resistant renovation that has been completed last year. The newer Akamon building is also quake resistant. According to the report that I received, what it looked like a "damage" of the building was in fact a necessary gap between two parts of the building, which was designed particularly for the purpose of quakeproof. This building consists of two buildings, and the gap prevents the two buildings from crashing against each other. The gap is very thin, and none of us knew about it because it was covered underneith a metal board, but the earthquake-resistant architecture was revealed by the earthquake on March 11th.

Since none of us really knew about the technology, we had had to limit our access to the building until we found out about the fact.

Thanks again for your kind concerns.

Best wishes,
Satsuki

Satsuki Takahashi
Forum Moderator