On Sept. 19, just as global financial markets were getting jittery about the U.S. subprime mortgage loan problem, the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry released its survey of Japanese land prices.
The annual survey listed the market prices for land as of July 1 at 25,346 points selected by prefectural governments. This year's news was that commercial land prices had risen 1 percent on average from a year ago. The first such increase in 16 years made headlines as a good sign that Japan's deflationary woes were coming to an end.
But many Japanese may have asked themselves: "What is the point of looking at musty two-month-old pricing data if housing prices in the United States are falling so sharply?"