TOKYO -- On a weekend in September, more than a dozen foreign investors, including several fund managers, took part in a bus tour of central Tokyo, provided by Merrill Lynch Japan Securities. The tour participants, from the U.S., Europe and Asia, were taken to ongoing redevelopment project sites in the Shinagawa, Toranomon, Shibuya and Bayside areas. The number of foreign investors who want to buy into Tokyo's redevelopment has grown since Japan's capital was chosen to host the Summer Olympic Games in 2020, according to Gary Okamoto, who oversees Japanese equities sales at the brokerage.
This former rail yard near Shinagawa Station is slated for redevelopment. The Shinagawa area attracted the closest attention, especially a 13-hectare plot, formerly a rail yard, between Shinagawa and Tamachi stations. East Japan Railway plans to build a new station on the Yamanote loop line, as well as office buildings and condominiums on the site. Overlooking the site from a nearby high-rise, some of the investors said enthusiastically that the redevelopment project would create immeasurable value.
