Commercial land prices fell an average 0.8 percent in the year ended June 30 — following their first upturn in 16 years the year before — while the 1.2 percent average decline in residential land prices for the same period marked the 17th straight yearly dip and was steeper than the previous year for the first time in five years.

Falling real estate investment with foreign capital due to the subprime housing loan crisis in the United States, and to the slackening demand for office buildings as the Japanese economy cools, have led to the nationwide downturn in land prices.

The land and infrastructure ministry says that in the Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya megalopolis regions, commercial land prices went up an average 3.3 percent, much slower than the previous year's 10.4 percent rise, and residential land prices rose an average 1.4 percent, down from the previous year's 4 percent rise.