The land of the rising sun...again

No doubt the first impression of an article on Japan is the same old story about the new rising sun. The problem is, the drum of this scenario has been played so many times in the last two decades and it is very hard to get engrossed. The key overlooked survey released towards the end of March still showed Japanese land prices declining year-on-year, no surprise as the trend is well established. However, the magnitude of the fall was the smallest in four years and the prices actually rose in certain metropolitan areas around Tokyo. The last time land values were at this level was durin...