Tourist boom sees Japan's urban land prices rise for first time in 27 years

In regions outside the three major metropolitan areas of Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya, the average price for land across all categories, including commercial, residential and industrial, grew 0.4 percent from a year earlier as of Jan. 1, the annual government survey showed. The rise was aided by redevelopment projects and investment in such cities as Sapporo, Sendai, Hiroshima and Fukuoka.

However, land prices in depopulated areas continued to fall, underlining the polarization of regional land prices in Japan, according to the survey.

As of Jan. 1, the average regional land price was unchanged from a year earlier, according to the nationwide survey by the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry covering some 26,000 locations.

Regional residential land prices edged up 0.2 percent from a year earlier, marking the first rise in 27 years, while commercial land prices went up 1.0 percent for the second straight year of increase.

But prices dropped at 48 percent of regional survey spots and remained flat in 19 percent of them as growth was mostly limited to tourist sites and areas with improved access due to redevelopment.

Among the major regional cities, Fukuoka observed the largest increase in commercial land prices at 12.3 percent, followed by Sendai at 10.7 percent, Sapporo at 8.8 percent and Hiroshima at 5.8 percent.

Residential land prices rose 4.4 percent on average in the four cities.

Overall, the national average price for commercial land increased 2.8 percent and that of residential land crept up 0.6 percent.