Grand Front Osaka Owner's Tower

The massive redevelopment of the Osaka Station North District ("Umekita") is well underway. The 38,000sqm site will have commercial office buildings, retail stores, a hotel and serviced apartments and a residential condominium tower. The design of the "Osaka North Plaza" located at the southern end of the site will be supervised by famous Japanese architect firm, Tadao Ando Architect and Associates.Read more

by Zoe Ward

Tokyo's population declines as residents continue to move to Western Japan

Tokyo's population has recently seen a net decrease as residents fled the city following the March 11 Tohoku Disaster and the nuclear emergency.

The hiring season and university enrollment schedule in Spring/Summer usually sees the Tokyo population rise. However, the statistics for June and July showed that the number of people who moved out of the Tokyo metropolitan area exceeded the number who moved into the area, causing the total population to decrease by 4,000 in greater Tokyo, and 6,400 in Tokyo alone. This is despite the thousands of new residents moving in from the Tohoku region.Read more

by Zoe Ward

The "World's Oldest Manga Cafe" to close down

Manrakuen Comic Paradise is a Japanese Manga-Kissa (a comic book library and cafe) near Jinbocho Station in Tokyo where customers pay 400 year per hour to sit and read from the collection of over 20,000 comic books.Read more

by Zoe Ward

Office vacancy rates and vacant floorspace down in August

Sanko Estate released their "Office Market" data report for high-rise office buildings with a floor plate of 660sqm or higher in Tokyo's central 5 wards (Chiyoda, Chuo, Minato, Shinjuku and Shibuya) for the month of August, 2011. According to their data, the vacancy rate for August was 5.66% - down 0.45% from July.Read more

by Zoe Ward

Average apartment management fees increased by 3.3%

According to the most recent survey by the Real Estate Economic Institute, the average monthly management fee for an apartment in greater Tokyo was 223.72 Yen/sqm in 2010, an increase of 3.3% from 2009.Read more

by Zoe Ward

95% of apartments in Waterras Tower Sold Out

Sales of apartments in the still under-construction Waterras Tower Residence in Chiyoda-ku have been very strong with offers made on 95% of the 182 apartments offered for sale during the first sales period in August, 2011.

Approximately 30% of the sold apartments were priced over 100 million Yen (1.3 million USD) with the most expensive apartment priced at 300 million Yen (3.9 million USD). The average apartment price is 1,225,000 Yen/sqm (1478 USD/sqft). Over 1200 people visited the model room on August 22nd and there were over 6000 requests for property sales material.Read more

by Zoe Ward

Kawasaki apartment block to be rebuilt after construction defects discovered

A 7-storey apartment building in Kawasaki City is due to be demolished and rebuilt after construction flaws were recently discovered that compromize the integrity of the structure.

A routine building inspection in 2009 uncovered gaps inside the beams and pillars of the building, as well as styrofoam and wood mixed in with the concrete pillars and walls. There were also fewer reinforced bars in the concrete than the construction blueprints indicated.Read more

by Zoe Ward