Design is a beautiful thing. Functional design is  beauty  with purpose. Due to its location right on the Ring of Fire, at the intersection of several very active  tectonic plates  Japanese  architects, engineers and construction professionals are very well versed in creating beautifully functional design.

Just take a look at the Skyscrapers of one of the cities, sorry i can’t read  Japanese  so I don’t know which, swaying during the massive 8.9 quake.  Rigid  objects break much easier than those that  literally  go with the flow. Imagine the horror if the design hadn’t been  beautiful  and functional?

Incredible: Japan’s skyscrapers swaying during an 8.9 quake | DVICE.