The average price of land in Japan has fallen for the first time in six years, due to a decline in demand for urban commercial land spurred by the coronavirus pandemic, the government said Tuesday.

Land in all categories, including residential and industrial, had fallen 0.5% from a year earlier as of Jan. 1., compared with a 1.4% rise a year earlier.

Land prices across all categories in the Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya metropolitan areas, the three largest, slipped 0.7% from the previous year, while rural land prices dipped 0.3%. The land ministry said the effects of the pandemic on land prices were "relatively small" in rural areas.