That a Japanese hydraulics company has admitted manipulating earthquake safety data for almost 1,000 buildings across Japan, including venues for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Games, shows just how far the pursuit of greater profits can go, to the extent of putting people’s lives in jeopardy.

The Tokyo-based KYB released an incomplete list of the affected buildings. Reports indicate they include government offices, the 634-meter Tokyo Skytree, and the Ariake Arena and the Olympics Aquatics Center, the latter two being venues for the 2020 Games.

KYB executives said at least eight employees had deliberately fudged data to save time and avoid delivery delays. Its president apologized at a press conference and promised all of the affected products would be replaced.

Still, several serious concerns abound in this story. Had it not been for the local media, which reported several Olympic venues used the faulty products, KYB might not have come clean. Secondly, KYB has apparently been routinely doctoring data for hydraulic oil dampers used to reduce shaking during earthquakes, and manufacturing and selling the defective dampers from as far back as 2000 through to last month.

The biggest worry is that the Olympics and the fudging of earthquake data are both happening in super seismic Japan. Tokyo and its surrounding areas sit precariously at the junction of shifting tectonic plates and have suffered violent quakes in the past, from the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake that killed more than 100,000 people to last month’s earthquake that hit the northern island of Hokkaido and killed about 40. Thus, sufficient earthquake resistance is a vital factor in a seismically unstable country like Japan.

KYB insists that, despite the violations, there were no immediate safety concerns. The Japanese government says buildings using the defective products are not at risk of collapsing in strong earthquakes. The Japanese Ministry of Land is also attempting to allay safety concerns, saying the affected buildings would be able to withstand a quake measuring a maximum 7 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale. It said KYB had been ordered to immediately replace the dampers for which the pre-sale test results were falsified.

Dampers are like shock absorbers that enable tall buildings to sway and absorb some of the seismic waves during a powerful quake. Without dampers, buildings shake for a long time — minutes for high-rise buildings. The Japanese might be used to buildings that shake and rock during earthquakes but how many of the hundreds of thousands of visitors, athletes and journalists who will descend on Tokyo two years from now live in earthquake zones? An earthquake striking Tokyo during the Games, and buildings swaying more than usual will cause panic enough.

The bottom line is that the practice of doctoring data for hydraulic oil dampers may have affected almost 1,000 structures throughout Japan, including high-rise buildings and hospitals, and this does not meet the safety standards as set forth by the government.

One good thing that has come out of this scandal is that the admission has prompted building owners throughout the country to check if their properties used KYB equipment. The scandal also highlights how Japanese firms are too willing to sacrifice standards in order to grow market share and profits.

Representatives for Tokyo 2020 have not yet commented; however, they should soon come out with a statement. If Japan wants to reassure top athletes and hundreds of thousands of visitors when they flock to Tokyo for the Games, which begin on July 24, 2020, that safety will be paramount, cutting corners and putting monetary profit ahead of people’s safety are not the way to provide the sort of safe environment Japan is touting.