Kyodo News reports on the popularity of buying and selling privately owned plots of land within military bases on Okinawa:

The plots, rents for which are paid by the Japanese government, are becoming popular as a safe investment vehicle because their rents increase steadily despite growing concern about the health of the economy, the brokers said.

Plots in the bases which are not scheduled to be returned are popular and are traded at higher prices, they said.

Although local landowners are generally reluctant to sell their plots in the bases, which have been owned by their families for generations, several hundred plots are sold each year on inheritance.

The rent of the plots has increased at an average of about 0.5 percent each year over the past several years. The steady rise in rents stems from landowners’ calls for the government to return their land or the increase in rents during the postwar era.

According to the real estate brokers, plots in the bases are traded at prices about 20-30 times annual rents.

Private land plots located in the U.S. Kadena Air Base, which are not scheduled to be returned, or those in Naha airport, which is used by the SDF, are sold at more than 30 times their annual rent.