The average price of all types of land in regional areas rose last year for the first time since 1992 as the growing influx of foreign tourists rejuvenated real estate investment, the government said Tuesday.
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.