Btw, speaking of Fukuoka – an interesting city consortium it's a member of, largely funded by Boeing and Microsoft, has some interesting commercial real-estate development projects going there, as the place becomes more and more pronounced as a techy-academic semi-silicon valley type place (check out http://www.internationalregions.org/).
Servcorp, one of the world's leading virtual office firms, was just interviewed as to 3/11's implications on its business clientelle, and verified large migrations of Tokyo business clients to Osaka and Fukuoka post Fukushima. That and the China-Fukuoka ferry line, the bullet train expanding there, and the business this all generates and signifies further enforce my strong confidence in this area.

And the best part is, all this future speculation is just the icing on the cake – the steady cashflow there in the older condo blocks is the bread and butter for me, personally.

C2 – btw – would be very interested to hear your impressions on food/water/air safety in Kyushu, if you've got any? Private measurements seem to be very rare there (which is probably a good sign), but I hate having to rely on those unreliable Jap govt "all is well, send the kids to school and shut up" reports…

As mentioned, haven't seen the need to delve deeper personally, due to lower returns and no interest in redevelopement – will happily forward the agent's details to you, if you wish, you sound like you've got Japanese speaking feet on the ground there, so you can probably take it from there yourself – let me know if you want his contact info (@Moderator – please note that this is a direct response to a direct request for information, NOT advertising, and NOT selling my product – this is a referral to a third party).

This particular agent doesn't normally post online, so not sure if he can help with a link, he usually provides us with PDFs or communicates by phone (in this case he showed us a printed copy while we were visiting his office), but if you check with him I'm sure he'll forward the listing and others like it directly to you – he certainly communicates by email readily enough (in Japanese of course).

In this particular case, one week, and most business owners or employees I speak to are typically hotel / real-estate / insurance / accounting / legal personnel etc, that is to say, people directly connected to my niche (the buying and selling of older condo units of particularly high rental returns) and I reported their impressions above – these are further supported by real-estate and salary trends in the area in the last 8 years or so, and particularly in what's been happening there in the last year, post-3/11. 

A great collection of informational tidbits, thank you, but hard to really point at a trend there, particularly without comparison to the rest of Japan. And again, as mentioned above, not directly related to anything that we deal with from a residential property owners' perspective. Not to say that this information has no merit, it does, but as per my original post, it needs to be taken into context with comparison to where things stood several years (or even one year) ago, and compared to information from other parts of Japan for any direct sense to be made of it. While I can (and will) ask Chikako, my Japanese partner to read, verify and expand upon the numbers you've provided when she has a bit of time to spare, they don't seem to me, at first glance, to bear a direct relevance to the topic here, unless taken into account compared to the rest of the country, not to put too negative of an emphasis on the point.

Never suggested it was, nor do I think the lack of building is necessarily a sign of a bad economy. I was merely mentioning this as an impression of a walk down the street, and not as concrete evidence of anything except the lack of same app. six months ago, on a previous visit, and in other areas, such as Fukui, which we visited on this occasion. Again, this was mentioned in passing and bears no direct relevance to our interests there, so pardon me if I don't address the rest of the statistics regarding construction and projects.

To summarize, please note that at no point did I say Kyushu or Fukuoka are in any way separate to the economic state of the rest of Japan, or that Japan is in any way separate to the economic state of the rest of the world. What I was suggesting, and still do, is this –

Kyushu area, Fukuoka prefecture, and Fukuoka city – particularly compared to 6-12 months ago, and certainly in aspects relating to the sales and rentals out of older, micro/small condo units – are doing well in comparison with other CLEAN areas of Japan, which is doing well in comparison with other areas of the world. I think a 5% decrease in average sale value between 2008-2011 is pretty darn good, considering the state the world's in atm, as well as the fact that salaries in Fukuoka prefecture have been steadily climbing back towards their pre-2008 values, and are now only 5-6% under that. To me, as a property owner who's looking for singles/couples, youngish company or office employee tenants (core family numbers, btw, meaning couples with young children, have been rising in Fukuoka, while the rest of Japan is suffers from an ageing population syndrome) – this was good news a year ago, and remains doubly so today.

Comparing this scenario to anything I can get, investing the same amount of money anywhere else in the world, from a cashflow perpective, at this point in time – Fukuoka wins hands-down. And again, I'm still waiting to see alternative numbers from the US or anywhere in Aus. (I'm getting a feeling the US comes close or possibly does even better on potential returns, but the hassle compared to Japan is astronomical…)