A new program created following the Landscape Act amendment
Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism announced on August 6 that Toyama City had been selected as a model municipality for the Landscape Area Renovation program. The program was created following the May 27, 2026 amendment to the Landscape Act and aims to improve area-wide value through coordinated regeneration. The focus in Toyama will be the area surrounding Minami-Toyama Station. The concept goes beyond improving building facades and includes regenerating the local environment and converting buildings to uses that take advantage of the area's role as a transport and community hub.
Toyama will search for private partners and design a public-private model
The city will examine how public and private actors can cooperate and identify private businesses capable of participating in projects. In regional cities, renovating isolated vacant shops or older buildings does not always change pedestrian flows or demand across an entire neighborhood. The new program instead treats the station district as an integrated area where landscape, building use, public space and private investment can be coordinated. The ministry plans to share progress with municipalities and private businesses nationwide and may select additional model cities.
Model-city status is not a guarantee of higher property prices
For property investors, government selection can be useful evidence of future planning activity but should not be interpreted as a guarantee of rising land values or rents. The key will be whether private partners, project locations, funding, building-use conversions and implementation schedules become concrete. International investors evaluating regional Japan should combine redevelopment information with station usage, residential population, tourism demand, rental demand and vacancy in the existing building stock. Whether Toyama's model is replicated in other cities will also be an important regional property-policy trend.