Yonago Tottori 2Yonago City in Tottori Prefecture is facing a looming crisis as the city’s finances cannot cover the growing maintenance bill required for its ageing public buildings.

It was estimated that the maintenance and reconstruction costs for its 1,282 city-owned buildings would amount to 215.4 billion Yen (2.1 billion USD) over the next 40 years.

The city’s annual budget only allows for 4.5 billion Yen to be put towards road, bridge and infrastructure maintenance, and cannot possibly support the annual cost of almost 5.4 billion Yen for additional building upkeep.

Many of the city-owned buildings were built in the 1960s and 1970s. 40.6% of the total floorspace is in buildings built before 1981 to the old earthquake codes (kyu-taishin), and 22.6% have not been earthquake-retrofitted.

The Municipal Yonago Historical Museum (c1940) is in dire need of major renovations including earthquake-retrofitting. The city is also looking for necessary funds to demolish the former Government Office Building (c1961) and relocate the facilities. The city’s public hall (c1958) was recently renovated at a cost of 1.52 billion Yen (14.7 million USD).

Yonago Tottori
The Municipal Yonago Historical Museum (left) and the former Government Office Building (right).

Source: The Yomiuri Shimbun, March 30, 2014.

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