The Hyogoken Nanbu (Kobe) Earthquake occurred on January 17, 1995. Almost 6,500 citizens of Kobe and the surrounding region lost their lives, and tens of thousands more lost their houses. The economic consequences have exceeded US$100 billions, making it the most expensive natural disaster on record.

National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience(NIED)has been constructing 3-D Full-Scale Earthquake Testing Facility, nicknamed "E-Defense" in the city of Miki, to the north of Kobe. Construction of this facility began in 1999 and will be completed in 2005. Therefore, this facility will begin to make its contribution ten years after the Hyogoken Nanbu (Kobe)Earthquake.
The world's largest shaking table, which can simulate high level ground motions, is taking shape in Japan. The opportunities and challenges provided through this facility are great. It will be a focus of full-scale testing of structures due to high-intensity earthquakes. It is a vehicle through which hope and optimism for improving the behavior of urban regions due to earthquakes will get an added boost.

Many earthquake-resistant structure were destroyed by recent earthquakes, such as the Kobe Earthquake(1995) in Japan, the Kocaeli Earthquake(1999) in Turkey, Niigataken-Chuetu Earthquake(2004) in Japan and so on..
The reliability of structures during earthquakes must be checked again using rational design methods. For this purpose, existing design methods must be confirmed by full-scale experiments.

E-defense will be open to the world. Furthermore, such a major facility will require coordination and collaboration of many participants, including academic institutions, government researchers, general public, private and industrial organizations.

This nickname is a slight modification of an idea of Mr. Masashi Inui of Amagasaki-city. "E" stands for "Earth", and the nickname shows the great expectations of research and developement for saving lives and properties of people from global disaster.
The logo was designed by Mr. Hiroyuki Kanazawa of Tatsuno-city. Cracks in the ground, earthquakes and the three-dimensional motion of E-Defense are symbolized with three colors.