For the fourth consecutive year, Japan's land prices have fallen. Prices decreased an average 2.6 percent in 2011, but the decline was smaller than the 3.0 percent in 2010 as the economy bounced back from the 3/11 disasters. Commercial land prices slipped 3.1 percent in 2011, less than the 3.8 percent drop in 2010, and residential land prices fell 2.3 percent, less than the 2.7 percent decline in 2010.
Fortunately, the triple disasters did not cause an overall steep drop in land prices nationwide. But attention must be paid to the fact that the disasters caused sharp declines in land prices in certain locations. Residential areas in Fukushima Prefecture, which was most affected by the nuclear crisis, saw land prices fall 6.2 percent in 2011 compared with 3.4 percent in 2010. There was a net population outflow of some 31,000 in 2011 — more than five times the corresponding figure in 2010.
While residential land prices in the Tokyo megalopolis declined 1.6 percent, those in the Osaka and Nagoya megalopolises fell 1.3 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively. In the Nagoya area and cities lying to the west of it, many areas saw rises in land price thanks to an influx of people from the Tohoku region. Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures together saw a net population exodus of more than 40,000.