The May and first-quarter release scheduled for August 31 has been postponed
Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism announced on August 27 that publication of the May 2026 and first-quarter Property Price Index, originally scheduled for August 31, would be postponed. The ministry said a malfunction had occurred in the calculation program and additional time was required to identify the cause, recalculate the index and verify the results. Releases for January, February, March and April 2026, as well as the fourth quarter of 2025, have also been postponed for the same reason. A new publication date will be announced once the schedule is fixed, so no unpublished value should be presented as the latest official index.
The official series is based on roughly 300,000 transaction-price records each year
The Property Price Index is an official MLIT series based on approximately 300,000 real estate transaction-price records annually. It tracks price movements at national, regional-block and metropolitan levels and is normally published monthly. The ministry also publishes transaction counts and transaction areas using ownership-transfer registration information as a complementary dataset. The index is not intended to value a specific condominium or land parcel, but it is widely used to understand medium- and long-term movements in Japanese residential and commercial property. A delay covering several observation periods therefore affects reports that rely on the newest official price series.
Other statistics can supplement the gap but cannot replace the index directly
Until publication resumes, analysts can use other data such as REINS completed transactions, the Land Price LOOK survey, official land-price statistics and housing starts to obtain more recent signals. These datasets have different property coverage, geographic definitions, reference dates and methodologies, so their numbers are not interchangeable with the Property Price Index. International market reports should be especially careful to display both the observation month and publication date. Presenting an older official index value simply as Japan's 'latest property price' can give overseas investors a misleading impression while the newer releases remain postponed.