TOKYO -- A Japan land ministry official was surprised that its real estate information website launched on April 1 has earned more than 10 million page views in the first six months.

The Real Estate Information Library released by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism can overlay data necessary for property transactions on a single map, and has been proving popular. It allows users to see information on real estate transaction prices, school districts, hazard maps and so on, in addition to the standard land prices released on Sept. 17. It also offers an English language option.

Its feature is that information can be "visualized" by overlaying multiple themes, such as land prices, disaster prevention and the surrounding environment. Previously, there had apparently been no system that could simultaneously display and allow users to understand relative locations of real estate-related public information released by the national government and local bodies.

According to the ministry, the system consolidated information that is in high demand as a reference for people considering to buy or sell property. When a user searches for a location on the map and checks on the tab what kind of information to see, related data is displayed on the map. The website can also be used on smartphones, with approximately 30% of its PVs being from those devices.

The information on the website is available to private companies free of charge, and the ministry hopes to use it to build a foundation for new services through system linkage. Apparently, the system has already been used by real estate portal websites among others.

More than 30 types of data can be displayed on the map, such as prices (land and property transactions), topography (shaded-relief map and large fill site), disaster prevention (potential flood inundation area and sediment disaster warning area), nearby facilities (school districts and medical institutions), city planning (city planning area and specific-use area) and population (population projections and number of passengers per station).

A ministry representative commented, "The response has exceeded our expectations. We will consider adding more data to the website by gaining a better understanding of user needs."

(Japanese original by Kazuki Sakuma, Tokyo Business News Department)