## 5 Trends in the Consigned Freight Forwarding Business and Measures

The consigned freight forwarding business Note is combined with multiple means of transport to provide services specific to varied user needs. Recent years have witnessed growing entry into the aircraft- and ship-based segments of international shipment to reflect the cargo owners’ needs for globalization.

Further, as international trade takes on an increasingly important tone, global shipment gets more streamlined than before, urging safety assurance during transportation. The MLIT works to ensure the availability of safe and secure logistics services, as by conducting audits, etc. to consolidate thorough operator code compliance.

## 6 Trends in the warehousing business and measures

Commercial warehouses play a significant role as nodal points of physical distribution. There are 6,030 warehouse operators (4,849 ordinary warehouse operators, 1,181 refrigerated warehouse operators) as of the end of FY 2014. In recent years, the construction of large, intelligent physical distribution facilities by foreign or domestic real estate entities or funds has been activated, giving birth to warehouse operators who rent such facilities to develop their businesses.

The introduction of equipment that makes for a lower-carbon implementation is underway, as well as the introduction of emergency power supplies and telecommunications equipment that help build a disaster-tolerant warehouse.

## Trends in the truck terminal business and measures

The truck terminal business plays a significant role in streamlining the flow of transport, mitigating congestion and so on as a nodal point of trucking between a trunk line and a terminal. In recent years, the construction of facilities that provide the functionality of a distribution center (sorting, processing for distribution and so on), as well as loading and unloading, is in progress to meet the sophisticated and diversified needs for logistics.

The introduction of equipment that makes for a lower-carbon implementation is underway, as well as the introduction of emergency power supplies and telecommunications equipment that help build a disaster-tolerant truck terminal.

## 8 Trends in the real estate business and measures

## (1) Real estate business trends

The real estate business is one of the key industries that command 2.6% of the total sales of all industries and 11.1% of the total number of corporations (FY 2014).

According to the 2016 official land prices (as of January 1, 2016), the national average of residential land prices fell but the rate of decline was smaller, while commercial land prices, which were flat last year, took an upward turn. The average for the 3 major metropolitan areas continued the rising trend for both residential properties and commercial properties. On the other hand, land prices in rural areas continued the downward trend for both residential and commercial land, though the rate of decline was smaller. The number of new housing starts, after exceeding 890,000 in FY 2012, topped 980,000 in FY 2013 but sagged to 880,000 in FY 2014 upon loss from rebounding from the last-minute demand stirred by a hike in the consumption tax rate.