An official measure of company acquisition activity
MLIT's corporate transaction volume index is built from ownership-transfer registrations associated with building sales and measures residential and non-residential property acquired by corporations. The nationwide May 2026 reading fell 5.2% from the previous month. The methodology is aligned with the existing-home sales index for individuals, allowing comparison between corporate and household transaction activity. Condominium data are also available both including and excluding units under 30 square meters because small investment apartments can materially affect transaction counts.
Volume data complement price indicators
Price indices alone do not reveal how actively assets are trading, while transaction counts do not show the direction or scale of price changes. The corporate index can therefore be combined with land-price, property-price and market transaction statistics to understand liquidity and investment behavior more fully. Foreign corporations considering entry into Japan can use changes in corporate acquisition activity as one indicator of competition in a particular market, while recognizing that an aggregate index cannot determine whether a specific asset is attractive.