Japanese bridge design prioritizes minimizing deaths and major damage in disasters over making structures unbreakable.
Engineers deliberately plan failure points and deformation modes.
After the 1995 Hanshin-Awaji earthquake, “fall-prevention devices” were added to the Road Bridge Specifications so bridge decks/beams won’t completely drop even if damaged—exactly why the bridge deck here was wrecked but stayed in place instead of collapsing to the ground.
Japanese yen hits nearly 40-year lows against U.S. dollar; wide rate gaps, structural economic woes and faded safe-haven appeal keep its long-term depreciation hard to reverse