Japan sits on the intersection of four tectonic plates and experiences roughly 1,500 earthquakes a year, which is why the country's building codes are the strictest on Earth — and why the Tokyo Skytree, the second-tallest structure in the world, is design

Japan sits on the intersection of four tectonic plates and experiences roughly 1,500 earthquakes a year, which is why the country's building codes are the strictest on Earth — and why the Tokyo Skytree, the second-tallest structure in the world, is design

The Tokyo Skytree is designed to move during earthquakes — not resist them. The 634-meter broadcasting tower that opened in 2012 in Sumida City is, by most rankings, the second-tallest free-standing structure on Earth, and the engineering choice at its core is that during a major earthquake the building is supposed to sway: not a little, and not by accident, but as the explicit design intent. The popular framing goes like this: Japan has among t…