The land ministry compiled a draft white paper on land for fiscal 2002, urging that real estate trading prices be made public, and presented it Thursday to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, ministry officials said.

The Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry's paper says the measure is intended to activate land trading by calling for investment from abroad, boosting potential demand.

Information on real estate trading prices, important reference data for judging the appropriateness of prices, are made public in the United States, Britain, France and other countries.

But in Japan, such information is barely made public, reportedly in order to protect privacy.

But according to a land ministry survey conducted in 2002, 81.9 percent of sellers and 84.0 percent of buyers said they would cooperate in responding to government requests for information.

According to the draft, potential demand to move houses and to purchase second or old houses will arise from a sense of ease through the provision of land trading prices.

The paper says that as well as accelerating corporate moves to purchase profitable land, the measure will help keep cities internationally competitive.

It said information such as how much profit land will generate and at around what price the land is actually traded should be provided.

It said securitization of real estate to diversify the risk of corporate property holdings up to fiscal 2002 totaled 9 trillion yen.