Japanese Land Prices Fall to 1970s Level
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS -- Monday, March 24, 2003
TOKYO -- Japanese land prices declined for a 12th straight year in 2002, sending the average price of commercial real estate back down near levels of the late 1970s, the government said Monday.
Commercial land prices across Japan plunged an average 8.0 percent last year from the year earlier, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport said in its annual land price report. Residential real estate prices tumbled an average of 5.8 percent.
Japanese real estate has suffered since land and stock prices started sinking in the early 1990s and took the economy into a prolonged slump.
Years of stimulus spending have been unable to get the the country growing again, as manufacturers face stiff competition from cheaper producers elsewhere in Asia and as concerns about job security lead consumers to hold down spending. Critics also say the government has failed to force needed structural reforms on bloated industries, holding back growth.
The rates of decline were steady from the previous year, when commercial land prices sank 8.3 percent and residential land prices fell 5.8 percent.
While real estate prices rose in some redeveloped Tokyo districts, this was the exception and there was no sign prices would turn around anytime soon, said ministry official Ryuji Yokozawa.
The 12 straight years of declines pushed Japanese commercial real estate prices down to a level almost equivalent to that in the late 1970s, Yokozawa added.
Japanese stock prices have been on a similar trajectory, hitting 20-year lows this year amid concerns about the health of the country's banks and worries the war in Iraq will slow global economic growth.
The ministry's report was based on a survey of land prices conducted Jan. 1 at 31,866 locations throughout the country.
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