Average commercial land prices in Japan rose for the second straight year, helped by hotel construction and other development projects following a surge in foreign tourists, government data showed Tuesday.

The prices as of July 1 rose 0.5 percent from a year before, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. The result compares with a 0.005 percent increase the previous year, which was the first rise in nine years.

Prices for the three largest cities of Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya rose 3.5 percent, the sharpest increase since the global financial crisis in 2008, while those for four key regional cities — Sapporo, Sendai, Hiroshima and Fukuoka — were up an average 7.9 percent.