Under the plan, local governments will buy and rebuild seven buildings that are feared to collapse from even a moderate quake. Residents could buy back the units of rebuilt condominiums.

The plan will cost as much as eight billion yen, including the expenses needed to dismantle and reconstruct the buildings, the government announced.

The seven condominium buildings were designed by architect Hidetsugu Aneha, who confessed last month to cooking data to skirt the earthquake-prone country's strict safety codes.

The scandal has shocked Japan, which experiences 20 percent of the world's major tremors and has long prided itself on building a quake-proof infrastructure.

The bailout plan will cover other buildings if they are also found to be at risk, likely raising the total bill for the government.

The government has already announced it will make about 2,200 residences available for residents of the condominiums.

Kimura Construction, a contractor based in southern Kumamoto prefecture and one of the central figures in the scandal, filed for bankruptcy protection last week.

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