Analysis of Japanese land prices using prefectural data

Abstract

The purpose of the thesis is to examine what economic factors determined or strongly influenced the Japanese land prices especially in the Bubble Period using prefectural data. This paper provides a Land Price Table which makes possible an understanding of real movements from 1970 through 1999 in land prices in each prefecture and compares the differences among prefectures. The table indicates the two peaks where land price jumped and then sharply fell within quite a short period in almost all prefectures. This paper provides explanations of the reason for the phenomena from both time-series and cross section levels. Utilizing the data in the Land Price Table, the research runs several cross section regression analyses setting up movements in land prices in each prefecture as the dependent variable and four fundamental data, density, population growth, job growth, and stock growth as independent variables. The analyses show unique features in land prices movements in each prefecture in each of three periods: Pre-Bubble Period (1975-1985), Bubble Period (1986-1991) and Post-Bubble Period (1992-1999). The results show which economic and other factors determined these movements of land price in each period.