1HISTORY OF MAJOR AMENDMENTS TO BUILDINGSTANDARD LAW
AND
TYPICAL CONFLICTS OF EXISTINGNON-CONFORMED BUILDINGS IN JAPANSenior Researcher
Jun-ichi Suzuki
Building department, Fire standards division,
National Institute for Land and Infrastructure Management(NILIM), 2016.5

2Contents• History of major amendments to fire safetyregulations• Outline of the Building Standard Law(BSL) and the Fire
Services Law (FSL) of Japan• Major amendments• Typical conflicts of existing buildings• A survey of existing office buildings on fire safety issues• Case studies of evaluation in fire for existingbuildings by a performance-based method• Ongoing projects for fire safety of existing buildings

3

Outline of the Laws for fire safety of buildings• Building Standard Law (BSL)

Smoke propagation
Evacuees

Structures,

Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Tourism(MLIT)• Regulations of buildings and equipment(Lifts, plumbing, etc.):• Material : Fire preventive materials• Structure: Fire resistance of building elements,

Fire compartment• Evacuation: Evacuation route
Smoke and Fire compartment

Element
UrbanfireFire in under ground

Fire spread

Combustion

Suppression,Extinguishment• Fire Services Law (FSL)

Fire and Disaster Management Agency (FDMA), Ministry of internal affairs and communications• Regulations of fire protection equipment and fire service activity :•••••••Fire extinguisher
Suppression system
Alarm system
Emergency exit (such as evacuation ladders)
Guidance system(Emergency exit sign)
Water source, reservoir tanks
Facilities for fire service activities (heat and smoke exhaust system, standpipe, etc.)

4Outline of the Laws for fire safety of buildings
Application of BSL amendments to existing buildings•(Non-retroactivity principle is based on the Constitution)The BSL has relaxations for existing buildings.

••Requirements by an amendment do not apply
to existing buildings, building under construction that had conformed
old codes at that time.

If large-extension, large-scale repair, renovation, or reconstruction (extensionetc.)of the buildings is not conducted after an amendment.
••

The latest codes are applied to the whole building when extension
etc. is conducted.
A building with conflicts are named “Existing non-conformed building”,
and distinguished with “illegal building”.

5Outline of the Laws for fire safety of buildings••

Application of FSL amendments to existing buildings
Retroactivity in FSL・Specified fire-prevention objects[buildings and structures]* have to follow
an amendment to all fire protection equipment.
Example of fire protection equipment: Fire hydrant, suppression system(sprinkler) etc. (relatively high cost)
・ALL existing buildings except single dwellings have to follow a newamendment to part of fire protection equipment :Fire extinguisher, emergency exit sign lighting etc.
(relatively low cost)
・Fire alarm is required in bed room in single dwellings* Specified fire-prevention buildings and structures:
Occupancy type :department store, hospital, night club, hotel, theater,
underground shopping district etc., in which heavy
casualties would be incurred in case of a fire6

Triggers of retroactivity of existing buildings
Existing non-conformed building
Trigger

New building
Latest codes

Additional construction

Conversion

Extension
Rebuild

Large-scale
repair,renovation
Over ½ ofelements etc.

Repair,renovation
except for
the left

Latest codes
to whole
Building*

Latest codes
to whole
Building

Necessarily
Not necessarily
to meetto meetLatest codes **Latest codes

Seismic retrofit
based on thePromotion Act

No additionalExtension etc.

To meetLatest codes
regarding
Seismicregulations

Not necessarilyto meet
Latest codes

Over 1/2 of principal elements*:Very small scale extension etc. (less than10m2) are exceptions.
**: if occupation of the conversion is similar tothe previous occupation,
it is not necessary to meet latest codes.
Not large-scale

Repair, renovation

Large-scale

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History of fire incidents and major amendment of
BSL and FSL (fire safety)Years
19481950
1953-1959
19611966-1969
1970-1974
1975-19791980-1986

Major fire incidents

Theaters
Department stores
Hotel (Japanese style)
Huge fires inDepartment stores, etc.
Multitenant building
Underground shopping
district, hotels
Social welfare facilities
A condominium
Department store

1987
1989
1990-1997
1998-2000
2001-2002
Multitenant building
Care houses
2006-20102013-2015 A clinic, Multitenant building

BSL

FSL
EstablishedEstablished✓
✓
✓

✓
✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓
✓ PBC✓✓✓PBC✓✓✓✓: relaxation ✓:restriction ✓:Performance Based Code8History of major amendments of BSL (fire safety etc.)
Years

Amendments of BSLDefinition of Fire resistive structure, Non-combustible material
1959 Fire compartmentation (floor area, different occupancy, penetration seal)
Staircase specification for department store and hall
1961 Interior finish restriction (IFR) to Night club, Bar, etc.
1963 IFR to high-rise buildings (over 31m)
Compartmentation and IFR above11 story (500m2 + Non-comb., 200m2+ Quasi-non-comb.)
1964
Specific staircase (staircase with an ancillary room) in buildings with 15 story
Restriction to Shaft, atrium, stairwell, through 3 story, common path of travel, automatic1969
close fire doors, Specific staircase in basement, Compartment of underground shopping district
Smoke exhaust equipment, smoke compartment, Emergency EV (over 31m), Rescue entry,
1970
Emergency lighting, Width of corridor in stores
1973 Fire doors with smoke barrier performance for stairwell, restriction of installation of 2 staircases
Revised seismic design
1981
Fire damper in ducts on penetration, Definition of rooms with no room1982 Smoke barrier in EV hall
1987 Scope of Fire resistive building and quasi-fireproof building
1992 Definition of quasi-fire resistive building
1993 Expanded the scope of quasi-fire resistive building
1994 Barrier free2000 Implement of performance based codes2005 Extension of buildings
2009 Approval of total renovation plan for existing building
2015 Inspection of fire doors, Relaxation of timber buildings and extension of buildings

9Typical conflicts of existing buildings• A survey of office buildings built before 1972
• The number of sample buildings was around 840.
mainly 4-10-story building
160
140

NumberNumber

120
100
80
60
40
200

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 31

Yearstory

Distribution of built year

Distribution of floor number

Building research Institute (Japan) conducted this survey in 2013.

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Typical conflicts of existing buildings• Requirement to Atrium, shaft, high ceiling,stair well, void (1969)

EVshaft• Atrium, Staircase, EV hall, lobby and corridor etc.

are not divided by fire doors, fire curtain, and so on.
• Compartmentations are not clearly defined.

• Requirement to installation of smoke exhaustequipment （1970）• Difficulties

No fire curtain
Lift landing door as smokewith no smoke barrier
barrier

To add the equipment to buildings after completion,
because of low ceiling height, floor height.
To exhaust smoke from rooms inside building,because of no window facing the outside• Requirement to common path to travel（1969）

EV,• Length of overlap of egress routes≦ 1/2 of egress route• Requirement to smoke barrier

AtriumShaft
High ceiling
Stairwell
VoidCorridor
Roomon EV hall（1982）
8 story building

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Typical conflicts of existing buildings
EVPartitionEV

No 2-way egress route
No compartmentation of staircase

EVEV

No compartmentation between staircase and corridor

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Case studies of evaluation safety for existingbuildings by a performance-based method• Outline of building (Completion of construction: 1968 )• Height, Number of floors : 31m, 8F• Floor height: 3.6m (2-8 F), 5.2m (1F)
• Ceiling height: 2.5m (2-8 F), 3.0m (1F)

No smoke barrier
on EV shaft

EV hall(40m2)• Construction: Steel encased Reinforced Concrete

15m

Fire door without
link to detector• Building area, Total floor area : 615m2, 4,951m2

Corridor(33m2)• Occupancy: Office• 1F： Entrance hall, administration room, restaurant, 2F： Office, well
• 3-5F： Office (large room type), 6F： Meeting room

Smokebarrier

SteelDoors41m• 7-8F： Office (small room type)• Equipment• EV( for occupants) x 2 , No emergency EV for fire brigade• Air conditioning system: single duct system + fan coil unit

Office(447m2)• Fire protection equipment: Automated fire detector, Fire alarm,

Indoor fire hydrant, fire department connection• Fire doors without link to fire detectors in staircase( fire doors manually closed as needed)• Smoke exhaust equipment: Null

• Compartmentation• EV, EV hall :Null ,Shaft/Staircase : Null

Conflict items
withprescriptivecodes

Firedoor13

Case studies of the evaluation for existingbuildings by a performance-based methodOffice(315m2)

2F floor plan

AtriumSmoke barrier with glazing

6F floor plan

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Results of evaluation before taking measures
・A fire in the atrium in 1F・Egress time

Smoke height

StatureEgress time andSmoke descend time (sec)

2F office3F office4F office5F office
6F corridor
7F corridor
8F corridor

Evacuees escape fromoutside stair

Staircase and shaft contaminated withsmoke because of no smoke barrier in
EV , fire doors without link to detectors

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Case studies of the evaluation for existingbuildings by a performance-based method• Evaluation of measures• Egress from fire room
• Smoke chamber using space in ceiling• Increase in a width of exit doors of fire room
• Installation of smoke exhaust equipment( difficulties in practice)• Egress from fire floor• Increase in smoke barrier performance of doors• Installation of smoke exhaust equipment( difficulties in practice)• Egress from building• ✔Increase in smoke barrier performance of lift landing doors• ✔ Installation of automatic closing fire doors linked to fire alarmor fire doors kept close✔: measures to existing building.

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Results of evaluation before/after taking measures• Effect of the measures• A: Installation of fire doors linked to smoke detectors• B: Installation of A and smoke barrier on EV shaft

Egress time

Smoke height

StatureSmoke descend time (sec)Smoke descend time (sec)Smoke descend time (sec)Existing building

Measures AMeasures B

17Ongoing projects for fire safety of existing buildings• Promotive projects for building Standard provisions• R&D of a method for improving fire safety performance ofexisting buildings (2016 , Fire safety project No.11)• Objective :• To promote adequate improvement and renovation of existing buildings

Target : Mid – high rise buildings
Office, Department store, hotel, complex building, etc.
• Research contents:• A survey on staircase and smoke exhaustion equipment in existingbuildings• Establishment of step by step practical approach to conform fire
regulation in Approval of total renovation plan for existing building• Total renovation plan: within 5years or 20years• Evaluation of fire prevention measure and control by occupant