Gov't to announce huge auction of national land

Japan Policy & Politics, May 28, 2001

TOKYO, May 25 Kyodo

The Finance Ministry is poised to announce Friday that it will hold an auction Sept. 17 to sell a plot of state-owned land where the main building of the Defense Agency formerly stood, ministry officials said.

The 78,400-square-meter site is located in Roppongi, one of the busiest areas in Tokyo, and is the last large-scale plot of national land remaining in the nation's capital, the officials said.

According to estimates by private real estate companies, the land will sell for 100 billion to 150 billion yen, and is expected to fetch one of the highest prices ever for a piece of nationally owned land.

The ministry hopes the sale of the land will enhance the government's redevelopment of urban areas, undertaken as part of efforts to revitalize the economy, the officials said.

Noting the ministry will sell the land as one unit, the officials said that, ideally, a complex combining residential and business facilities should be built on the site, as hoped for by the Tokyo metropolitan government.

They said the proceeds from the transaction will be used to repay debts incurred when the Defense Agency's main building was relocated to a different area in Tokyo.