News On Japan

Japan’s Land Prices Surge Again as Resort Areas Soar

TOKYO - Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism announced that as of January 1st, official land prices—a key real estate benchmark—rose 2.7% year-on-year, marking the fourth consecutive annual increase.

By category, residential land prices climbed 2.1%, while commercial land prices increased 3.9%.

Amid strong inbound tourism, resort areas such as Furano in Hokkaido continued to see significant price surges. In contrast, land prices in areas affected by the Noto Peninsula earthquake saw a sharp decline.

Source: TBS

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A very strong Typhoon No. 18 is moving west-northwest over waters south of Japan and is forecast to pass near Minamidaito Island on August 25 before approaching Okinawa and the Amami Islands, raising concerns over prolonged violent winds and heavy rain. As of 9 a.m. on August 24, the typhoon was moving west-northwest at 35 kilometers per hour while maintaining very strong intensity.

Kyoto is stepping up efforts to capture Japan's growing nighttime economy, with Toei Kyoto Studio Park extending its hours to 9 p.m., a new theater drawing visitors near Kyoto Station and nighttime tours expanding in Gion as the city seeks to encourage tourists to stay out longer and explore more areas after dark.

A 39-year-old woman from Taiwan has been arrested on suspicion of pouring an oil-like liquid on the national treasure Buddha Footprint Stone at Yakushiji Temple in Nara in April, police said.

Japan executed 58-year-old death row inmate Sunao Takami on August 21 for setting fire to a pachinko parlor in Osaka in 2009, killing five people and injuring 10 others, in the first execution carried out under the Takaichi administration.

Japan's government is moving toward abolishing the Cool Japan Fund, a public-private investment vehicle created to support the overseas expansion of Japanese anime, food culture and other industries, after its cumulative losses reached 54 billion yen.

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Following the fare revision, a labor union representing taxi drivers in the prefecture and other groups held a news conference calling for the proportion of operating revenue paid to drivers to be raised from its current level to at least 60%.

China's exports of rare-earth magnets to Japan fell by more than half in July from a year earlier, while shipments of tungsten carbide remained at zero for a sixth consecutive month, according to trade data released by Chinese customs authorities.

Japan's nationwide core consumer price index rose 1.8% in July from a year earlier, with the pace of inflation accelerating for a second consecutive month as higher food prices and a rebound in energy costs outweighed a sharp decline in rice prices.

Mitsubishi Electric said on August 20 that it will acquire U.S.-based PCI Energy Solutions, a developer of software used to manage electricity trading and other energy operations, in a deal worth about 220 billion yen, the largest acquisition in the Japanese company's history.

Tokyo stocks rebounded on August 20, with the Nikkei 225 closing at 66,216.79, up 890.37 points, or 1.36%, as gains in U.S. equities, a sharp rally in South Korean semiconductor shares and easing global bond-market stress encouraged investors to buy back Japanese shares after two days of heavy selling.

Japan's labor ministry will revise its guidance on overtime from September 1, moving away from a uniform recommendation that workplaces keep overtime within 45 hours a month and placing greater emphasis on whether employers have adequate measures in place to protect workers' health.

Whistleblowers who expose suspected wrongdoing at companies and other organizations in Japan are increasingly finding themselves targeted by multimillion-yen damages claims, raising questions over whether the country's legal system adequately protects people who report misconduct.

Small businesses across Japan—from Tokyo tech startups to traditional long-standing shinise enterprises— are increasingly becoming targets for sophisticated digital scams.