Overall, Japan looks to be shrinking but big cities are expanding.
How does it have an implication on the real estate in Japan.
I have been hearing a question repeatedly from a number of my
foreign friends (and Japanese friends, too), that is “Why do you
want to invest in the property in a country where the
population is decreasing ?”
It is very true that overall Japan is shrinking but when it comes to the real
estate investment such naive macro view could mislead your decision.
The population growth is one of the biggest factors in the property
investment in deed and a growing population should give you the opportunity
to raise rents over time and also should enhance values of your property.
However you need to see the numbers in depth.
The Japanese Government recently announced the official intra
population movement report(statistics of intra-prefecture migration)
in 2017.
Based on the investors view, here are your takeaways from the announcement.
1. Tokyo area (greater Tokyo) won’t stop growing
According to the report, the greater Tokyo area (Tokyo, Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa)
was in “net surplus” in which the number of the net inflows stands at 117,779.
Net surplus (net increase of the population) in the greater Tokyo area has posted
for 22 consecutive years, net surplus number (growth) has also
increased since 2009.
Looking at the each number of domestic migration by prefecture in 2017,
only seven prefectures of Tokyo, Chiba, Saitama, Kanagawa, Fukuoka, Aichi
and Osaka are in net surplus. The largest number of net inflow is shown in Tokyo
as prefecture (net 75,598 surplus), followed by 16,303 in Chiba and 10,423 in Saitama.
You can find the stark contrast among the prefectures in the following chart
which was published by Statistics Bureau of ministry of the internal affairs
and communications on January 29, 2018. Read more
