According to the latest trends in land prices released by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, residential property prices remain relatively weak in the Tokyo and Nagoya areas, although prices have been firm in parts of Osaka with convenient proximity to transportation and good environments.
In commercial areas, the rate of decline in rent has been reduced in the heart of Tokyo as rent adjustments progressed, with rent in Ginza and Roppongi leveling out. Demand for condominium land has increased in the Nagoya and Osaka areas.

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Two months have passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake, and although the current real estate market remains in a wait-and–see situation, the gloom and doom feared in the beginning has been avoided, as there has been no notable drop in rent and property prices.
In the beginning, the uncertain outlook for the Japanese economy was an obstacle for the overall real estate investment environment, but various reports by large think tanks (Tokyo Marine Property Investment Management Inc., NLI Research Institute, and the Japan Real Estate Institute) are now being issued.The common points indicated in these reports can be summarized as follows.

1) Decentralization of demand for properties away from Tokyo, a deceleration in the past trend of concentration in Tokyo.
2) Selective demand based on type of properties
3) Selective demand based on location and building structures

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2.Overview of the Japanese Real Estate Market
<2011 up to February 2011>
Compared to the fiscal year ended March 2010, when real estate prices bottomed out at the lowest level, the real estate market continued to follow the trend of the second half of 2010 with transactions that show price rebound or increase. Office buildings in Chiyoda-ward, Tokyo’s city center, in particular, are being traded at higher prices by European and American investors, which is a good recovery sign for the overall real estate market.
The recovery trend was also observed in many residential districts, as well as commercial districts, of the three major metropolitan areas (Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya).
Residential property prices have risen not only because residential properties serve as temporary receptacle assets for investment funds, affluent in the world today, but also as a result of price formation through actual demand, reflecting expectations of economic recovery…
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IMAX exclaimed that around 350 locations in China had been identified to be suitable for IMAX theater installation. This study further solidify IMAX determination in expanding its theater setup in China up to 100 within few years. Recent promotion campaign included IMAX film demonstration in temporarily facility around 3rd-tier cities in China.

2011/2/17
Online streamer PPLive obtained USD250 million from Softbank to prepare for IPO.  Tudou.com is expected to be the next online streamer to be listed. As it is anticipated that advertisement revenue for this sector could reach over RMB13 billion, foreign capitalists are more actively investing into China online streaming business.

Ku6.com announced strategic alliance with Xinhuanet, enjoying direct linkage to news broadcasting on various news channels operated by Xinhuanet. Such alliance aimed to boost Ku6.com viewing rate, new subscribers and brand image.

Online streamer Tudou.com, Ku6.com and Youku.com are setting 2011 as the year to produced their own “net” series, as they are already benefitted from China government tighter enforcement on copyright monitoring. Similarly, Letv.com purchased 19 of H. Brothers TV series at RMB57 million for exclusive online streaming.　

2011/2/22
H. Brothers announced JV with Jiading Industrial Zone and other few companies  to setup “H. Brothers Film Town” in Shanghai. This investment aims to provide self-reliant studio production, and expand into tourism market.　

2011/2/24
TV drama listed company Huace reported near RMB282 million total revenue for the year, which is above 70% growth and same for operating margin and net income also. Huace’s previous year investment in operation sustainability assured healthy growth for the current financial year.

2011/2/25
H. Brothers approved “H Plan” for year 2011, of which it will be filming 10 new motion pictures with max cap at RMB200 million on each budget. H. Brothers achieved RMB1.7 billion on exhibition gross in 2010, with reported 85% growth in 2010 net income at RMB153 million.

2011/3/2
Hong Kong listed company Imagi International Holding announced HKD814 million acquisition of Toon Express Group, which owns the trademark and character copyright of “Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf”, the best selling animation in China. Imagi plans to produce three 3D feature films by 2016 leveraging from this acquired IP.

Wanda Cinema was announced to be on final stage in IPO preparation. If Wanda Cinema would become the 1st theater chain to be listed in China, shall the process become successful. Wanda enjoyed highest revenue from movie exhibition in China with its unique ownership in theater complex and land property.

2011/3/4
Listed TV drama producer Huace planned to invest RMB500 million in 2011 to produce up to 10 TV drama series, and import 200 episodes of outstanding drama from Hong Kong TVB, Japan, Korea, Thailand and other region. Huace will likely to maintain the import amount in 2012 also.

2011/1/26
According to a report approximately 15 new IMAX theaters will be opened in China this 2011, in order to capture lucrative revenue from 15 new IMAX films that are expected to be exhibited. Notably, high cost in refurbishing a theater to IMAX standard for Wanda Cinemas in Beijing revealed that pay-back period is more than 3 years.

2011/1/26
China listed airport advertiser Airmedia Group announced sponsorship to film promotion by utilizing its digital media platform in airports and airplanes. Without any capital injection, Airmedia will enjoy minimum guarantee and 10% profitability from film exhibition. However, Airmedia expressed it will only optimize its media resources without heavy involvement in film business.

2011/1/27
After the success of the 2010 film “Aftershocks” based on Tangshan earthquake, Tangshan city government hoped that production of films, TV drama, and music video in the region could be benefited from its RMB60 billion investment on 1000 over historical and cultural preservation centers. Every year, RMB12 million will be provided to support the cultural industry development in the region.

2011/1/27
A recently listed publishing company, China South Publishing & Media Group (CSPMG) signed a cooperative agreement with Huawei Technologies, a telecom solutions provider, and Beijing Booky Publishing.  The agreement is said to indicate CSPMG’s focus on digital publishing business.

Singapore

2011/1/26
Singapore Media Development Authority (MDA) co-funded with 2 universities and a research institute from Singapore, Switzerland, and the USA at SD23 million to setup BeingThere Centre, with a team of 32 top scientists, to research “telepresence”. This is an interactive real-time 3D communication that allow meeting to be conducted from different locations via a “glass wall” or mobile display technology.

Hong Kong & Taiwan

2011/1/27
World leading smart phone developer HTC from Taiwan was said to acquire considerable amount of stakes in Hong Kong TVB along with several investors. HTC was speculated to be support its affiliate online DVD rental operator Catch Play through such acquisition to further involve in Taiwanese and Hollywood film production.

2011/1/19
Youku.com initiated paid channel in agreement with CCTV6 film division to implement paid-per-view (RMB5 for unlimited viewing within 48 hours) for the 2010 best performed China movie. As its competitor Ku6.com also conducting paid-channel recently, fee collection for viewing films on internet could become a nation-wide trend.

2011/1/19
Four satellite TV operators in China were protesting as several webTVs were streaming latest version of Chinese epic “Water Margin-Heroes of the Marsh” (Xuifuzhuan) near 8 months earlier than presumed broadcast schedule for satellite channels. Though distributor for this TV drama acknowledged that webTV 3-year display right is fully legal as of January after broadcasted by 10 over terrestrial TV station, satellite TV operators urged for immediate cease.

2011/1/21
Private investment company Carlyle is speculated to sell of its 61% shareholding with kbro Limited (formerly Eastern Multimedia Company) in Taiwan. kbro’s revenue for 2010 totaled TWD5.1 billion, with EBITA at TWD1.5 billion. With its latest book value of TWD2.75billion, it was estimated the selling price could reach TWD12 billion, a 8x of the purchase price Carlyle paid.

2011/1/11
“Beijing Culture & Creative Industry Financial Support Center” was setup by Beijing Bank at its Xuanwu branch. As of last October, Beijing Bank approved loans worth RMB16 billion for content giants like China Film Group, H. Brothers, Poly Bona, Wanda Cinema, etc. In summary, 80% content projects in Beijing are loaned by these financial supports from Beijing Bank.

2011/1/12
China main IPTV company, VODONE (V1.cn), announced acquisition of mobile game company 3GUU to setup China Mobile Game Entertainment Holding Group. Along with another 2 similar subsidiaries, this group will have strongest forecasted net income before tax in China mobile game sector by 2011 at RMB157 million with 10 million paid users.

2011/1/13
Sina stock price surged due to the rumors that Alibaba.com or Baidu would inject capital to newly setup Sina Microblog which has 50 million registered users. Sina Microblog aims to be listed in the near future, and is currently developing real time interconnection with Alibaba.com and Baidu on search capability in order to compete with Tencent.

2011/1/13
In addition to the acquired displaying rights of 100 over new IPs on IPTV, Letv.com also announced that paid subscribers for its IPTV will also enjoy new movie at “same release date” with theater exhibition. Though the 1st of such movie is still 15-day lagging, Letv.com claimed that as a great leap forward and paid IPTV channel will soon be 2nd most profitable distribution for films with more room for price growth.

January 1

Letv.com spent RMB75 million to purchase in advance the online exclusive broadcasting rights on various 2011 top films and TV drama. Not long ago, Youku.com also announced in their IPO on similar spending valued RMB56 million.June 8

January 6

Film production base in Huairou, Beijing suburb, achieved operating income RMB860 million in 2010 with 14% growth rate. This heavily invested facilities produced 216 IPs and accommodated 300 over production studio work in 2010. Currently, there are 3407 content-related companies operating in this area.

Youku.com, which raised USD202 million during December IPO in the USA, announced alliance partnership with Warner Brothers to obtain internet re-sale right for “Inception” as well as on-demand-streaming right. This could be an indication that Hollywood is getting confident with China anti-piracy efforts hence taking advantage of this content exporting mean.

January 7

China Film Group, with reported net income RMB400 million in 2010, completed the registration of a new holding company with capital RMB1.4 billion along with invitation to 7 media companies such as Hunan TV and Beijing Gehua CATV to be strategic partners for the coming listing process preparation. Each of these media partnering companies will hold 1% share, and it was reported Beijing Gehua CATV had contributed RMB21.3 million for its stake. China Film Group is one of two only companies in China with permission to distribute imported films.