From long personal experience, research, and private conversations with international real estate investors, analysts, and marketing executives, Dr. Hines identifies succinctly and precisely the differences between investing in Japanese real estate and real estate elsewhere—the crucial differences, plus the risks and hazards that real estate professionals must know and understand. She shows that the new Japanese economic environment is having its affect on real estate there, how foreign investors are influencing the value of property and the systems to analyze it, and why the financing of real estate in Japan through loan and equity securitization is on the rise. Real estate professionals will be particularly interested in her coverage of commercial and residential property, while specialists with other interests will also get an unusual view of Japanese urban planning, land development, and tenure changes over time, information that is rarely available in English. Dr. Hines focuses on the Tokyo metropolitan area and on office buildings and shopping centers, in general but she also covers residential and industrial property investment across Japan. Readers will get a quick view of the new investment climate and aspects of economic, cultural, governmental, and environmental change in Japan. She gives a brief history of Japanese land tenure and views current land planning and control from a historical perspective. For real estate professionals there are chapters on leasing, marketing, land development, and construction, and she delineates the differences between Japanese real estate appraisal and international valuation methods and practices. Also noted is the increased use of income capitalization methods. Dr. Hines examines differences between Japanese and international real estate investment methods of analysis, particularly in light of Japanese real estate financing and taxation. She also illustrates the imputed interest charge methods of investment analysis and gives special emphasis to internationally approved discounted cash flow analysis. Finally, the book examines the trend toward real estate securitization and shows how banks and other financial institutions are reducing their real estate lending and restructuring themselves to prepare for a new era of economic reform.