We began a new block of 6 one bedroom apartments in November this year (2009) and had no trouble at all gaining permission to build until we hit a soil concern. We had done our usual sounding prior to purchasing the block and as a) we had built in that area three times before b) the entire project was a smaller 70.000.000 yen job we moved ahead on that survey. As things progressed the city passed our building design however asked asked for a "fuller" set of sounding on the land and just as well they did. We found that the top corner or our block was quite soft. In fact we had what appeared to be some very old land fill covering an are of about 12 square meters to a depth of 3 meters.

Below that "hole" was solid rock. With permission from the city we quickly filled in that soft area with a couple of truck loads of concrete and now the land is very stable however I doubt any trees will grow in that corner.

In recounting this story to some locals their responses was very simple, "Oh yer...there used to be a well there" Now you tell me!

Diary note; "be sure to check with locals before developing land"

This little diversion added about 1.000.000 yen to the project. Still better safe than sorry.