In the existing housing distribution market, the number of successful deals was 173,000 in FY 2015 (up 9.5% from the previous fiscal year) according to the Real Estate Information Network System (REINS) $ {}^{Note 1} $ .

## (2) Status of the real estate industry

The Ministry endeavors to ensure precise administration of the Real Estate Brokerage Act to protect consumer interest involved in housing land and building deals and to expedite distribution. The number of real estate dealers was 122,685 at the end of FY 2014.

The MLIT, along with prefectural and municipal governments, endeavor to prevent complaints and disputes by working in conjunction with the bodies concerned while imposing severe supervisory dispositions on those entities that have breached the law. In FY 2014, 249 supervisory dispositions were imposed (including 141 revocations of licenses, 74 suspensions of business and 34 orders).

To combat the problems of malicious soliciting at the time of condominium sale, the Ministry will continue to alert consumers through its Website or other means and work together with the agencies concerned to provide relevant supervision and guidance to define the acts that are prohibited in soliciting in connection with real estate brokerage.

To ensure proper management of growing stocks of condominium, a system of registration for condominium management services entities and service regulations have been enforced to ensure their proper management in accordance with the Act on Advancement of Proper Condominium Management. As of the end of FY 2014, the number of condominium management service entities was 2,214. From a viewpoint of promoting the code compliance of condominium management services entities, on-the-spot inspections have been conducted.

Since December 2011, a “system of rental housing management entity registration” that places a certain set of rules on the fulfillment of rental housing management services has been put into effect to foster and develop a good-quality rental housing business. As of the end of FY 2014, the number of registered rental housing management entities was 3,538.

## (3) Conditioning the environment for market reactivation

## (i) Status quo of the real estate market

Japan’s real estate had a total asset value of about 2,400 trillion yen as of the end of FY 2014 $ ^{Note 2} $ .

The book value of the real estate or the trust beneficiary interest in real estate that were acquired by J-REITs (real estate investment corporation), real estate specified joint enterprises, special-purpose companies and so on as objects of securitization during FY 2015 stood at about 5.4 trillion yen.

J-REITs play a central role in the real-estate investment market. As many as five brands were newly listed in just one year in FY 2015. As of the end of March 2016, 53 brands were listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Total book value of assets under management of J-REITs amounts to 14 trillion yen and the market value of the real-estate investment securities adds up to about 12 trillion yen.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange REIT Index, which indicates price movements of the overall J-REIT market, increased 1.7% over the fiscal year because positive factors, such as improved conditions for the real estate market, an increase in inbound consumptions due to the rising number of inbound foreign visitors and the introduction of negative interest rates by the Bank of Japan, were partially offset by concerns about possible declines in demand due to successive public offerings and a plunge in the Chinese stock market.

The amount of yearly property acquisition in J-REITs stood at about 1.6 trillion yen for 2015.