Muji Model House opened in Saitama
Japanese household and consumer retail giant, MUJI, has designed a model house in conjunction with home-builder Okawa. The display home was opened on April 1 in Urawa-ku, Saitama City.
The house was designed to be long-lasting and flexible, so that it can be easily changed to adapt to changes in family structure and lifestyle. By 2015, both companies are expecting to be able to supply 500 MUJI-style homes annually.Read more
Ibaraki sells film set to NHK
The Ibaraki Prefecture Development Public Corporation has sold "Warp Station Edo" to NHK Enterprise for 113.4 million Yen (1.4 million USD).
Located in Tsukubamirai City, Warp Station Edo is a park and film set used for many historical-period dramas and movies.
It was built by the Prefecture in 2000 at a cost of 3.2 billion Yen and was first operated by "Media Park Tsukuba" - a joint venture between the Prefecture and the former town of Ina. However, after just two years into the park operations, a total of 800 million Yen in debt was incurred. Operations were then handed over to Daishinto Group, and finally the Prefecture's public corporation took over. The debts continued to grow so the Prefecture decided to sell.Read more
Korea Town leads to rise in land values
The South Korean pop culture boom in Shinjuku's "Korea Town" has led to a large increase in surrounding land values.
According to the 2012 Koji-Chika assessed land values, the Shinokubo area in Shinjuku which has a large South Korean population has seen land values increase by 1.7% over the past year. While the nationwide residential land values have fallen by 2.3% and 3.1% in business districts, Korea Town has managed to escape from the declining land values.Read more