Seismic Rehabilitation of School Buildings in Japan

Following the 1995 Hyogoken-nambu (Kobe) earthquake, various integrated efforts have been directed toward upgrading seismic performance of vulnerable school buildings. In this paper, damage statistics of school buildings due to the Kobe earthquake, criteria to identify their vulnerability, the subsidy program for seismic rehabilitation, and their implementation examples, are briefly described, together with recent challenging efforts for further promotion of seismic rehabilitation on a nationwide basis.