Industry
Update

The yen sank to an eight-month low in the lower 152 range against the U.S. dollar early Wednesday on selling fueled by concerns over Japan’s deteriorating fiscal health and receding expectations of an imminent interest rate hike by the Bank of Japan.


The yen has weakened sharply this week after Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Sanae Takaichi, known as a fiscal dove and proponent of easy monetary policy, was chosen as the party’s leader, making her likely to become the next prime minister later this month.


At 9 a.m., the dollar fetched 152.04-08 yen compared with 151.85-95 yen in New York and 150.62-64 yen in Tokyo at 5 p.m. Tuesday.


The euro was quoted at $1.1652-1654 and 177.16-23 yen against $1.1653-1663 and 177.08-18 yen in New York and $1.1676-1677 and 175.87-91 yen in Tokyo late Tuesday afternoon.


Tokyo stocks were mixed as buying of some exporter shares on the persistent yen weakness was offset by selling after overnight Wall Street losses.


In the first 15 minutes of trading, the 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average fell 58.45 points, or 0.12 percent, from Tuesday to 47,892.43. The broader Topix index was up 23.20 points, or 0.72 percent, at 3,251.11.


On the top-tier Prime Market, the main gainers were farm and fishery stocks as well as insurance shares, while chemical and glass, and ceramics product issues were among the notable decliners.

The average overall price of land in Japan as of July 1 rose 1.5 percent from a year earlier, marking the sharpest growth since 1992, boosted by solid housing demand and inbound tourism, government data showed Tuesday.


The price climbed for the fourth straight year, also lifted by robust investment demand from overseas on the back of the weak yen. Commercial land prices gained 2.8 percent with launches of new hotels and stores in urban areas amid a surge in foreign tourists.


”Investment demand from foreigners is growing for condominiums in central Tokyo and resort areas in Hokkaido” in northern Japan, said an official of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.


Prices for residential land increased 1.0 percent due to strong demand for residences in urban areas, as well as for employee dormitories in resort areas. However, some places experienced sluggish growth due to soaring construction costs.


Among residential areas, Furano, near Hokkaido’s ski areas and a popular destination for overseas investors developing resorts, saw the sharpest growth of 27.1 percent.


The ministry said that Chitose, in Hokkaido, which houses a Rapidus Corp. semiconductor plant, saw the fastest growth in commercial areas, at 31.4 percent.


The average land price increased by 4.3 percent in Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya, seeing larger growth in both residential and commercial areas.


For the third consecutive year, regional land prices increased, with residential areas rising 0.1 percent and commercial areas climbing 1.0 percent.


Prices for residential land increased in 20 of Japan’s 47 prefectures, up by three from the previous year, while 26 saw declines.


The Meidi-ya Ginza commercial building site in Tokyo’s Ginza shopping district fetched the highest price per square meter of 46.9 million yen ($320,000), topping the list for the 20th consecutive year.


After 1992, land prices had been on a downward trend due to the bursting of the country’s asset price bubble. However, they have been on an upward trend in recent years after recovering from the financial crisis triggered by the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and the coronavirus pandemic.

Rice production in 13 of Japan’s 47 prefectures in 2025 is expected to exceed that of the previous year and remain mostly unchanged in 29 prefectures, an outlook from the farm ministry showed Friday, raising hopes that the country’s rice shortage will soon be resolved.


With just four prefectures projected to see lower rice yield per unit area than the previous year as of Aug. 15, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has concluded that overall harvest conditions are favorable.


Okinawa Prefecture was not included in the outlook as some of the figures from the region have yet to be tabulated.


Land for cultivation in 2025 is expected to expand by about 100,000 hectares compared with the previous year. Assuming regular crop conditions, the ministry forecasts that brown rice production will increase by 560,000 tons to around 7.35 million tons.


A significant shortfall was seen in 2024, when demand reached 7.11 million tons, while only 6.79 million tons of rice was produced. The rise has been mainly driven by reduced distribution volumes, due in part to heat damage and pest outbreaks, with some also attributing it to demand from booming inbound tourism.

The average price of a condominium in the 23 municipalities of central Tokyo was 111.8 million yen in 2024, according to the Real Estate Economic Institute based in the capital. This was a 2.6% year-on-year decline, but the figure remained firmly above 100 million yen as the cost of both labor and materials rose. A total of 8,275 units were sold, a decrease of 30.5% from 2023.

In the Tokyo metropolitan area as a whole—including the prefectures of Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, and Chiba—the average price for a new condominium dropped by 3.5% to 78.2 million yen. The major drop in sales in central Tokyo brought the overall average down, but prices rose across the board in western Tokyo (up 8.9% to 58.9 million yen), Kanagawa (up 6.0% to 64.3 million yen), Saitama (up 13.8% to 55.4 million yen), and Chiba (up 18.9% to 56.9 million yen).

The number of units sold throughout the Tokyo metropolitan area fell by 14.4% year on year to 23,003, reaching its lowest point since records began in 1973. The number of units priced at 100 million yen or higher dropped by 526 year on year, to 3,648.

Some 26,000 units are forecast to be sold in 2025, a rise of 13.0%, with high costs for construction and labor expected to keep prices elevated.

The value of Japan’s agricultural, fisheries and forestry product exports rose 3.7 percent in 2024 from a year earlier to 1.5 trillion yen ($9.6 billion), setting a new record, driven by growing demand for the country’s cuisine overseas, the government said Tuesday.


The 2024 figure marked a new record for the 12th consecutive year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and came as Japan aims to boost farm and seafood exports to 2 trillion yen by 2025, a goal established with the nation’s dwindling population in mind.


After the outcome was released, farm minister Taku Eto said at a press conference that the target is a ”high hurdle but by no means impossible to achieve, if we continue to develop production” in line with the needs of each country’s market.


In 2024, however, exports to China plunged 29.1 percent to 168.1 billion yen for a second straight year of decline, hit by its import ban on Japanese seafood in the wake of the discharge of treated radioactive wastewater from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.


Fishery product shipments to China plummeted 89.9 percent to 6.1 billion yen as a ban on scallops and sea cucumbers, previously accounting for a large portion of seafood exports, weighed on trade. Japanese whisky sales also decreased in the aftermath of an economic downturn in the country.


Last year, the United States was Japan’s top export destination, followed by Hong Kong and Taiwan. Shipments to the world’s biggest economy jumped 17.8 percent from the previous year to 242.9 billion yen, making up nearly 20 percent of total exports.


While Japanese beef and sake gained popularity in the United States, scallop exports to the nation climbed on the back of a shift in seafood shipments from China.


Rice exports showed the sharpest pace of growth among all products, surging 27.8 percent to 12 billion yen, due in part to higher consumption at Japanese restaurants in the United States and Hong Kong.