DAVID W. EDGINGTON Department zyxwvutsrqponm of Geography, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6T 122 (+mail: edgingtn@geog.ubc.ca) JAPANESE REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT IN CANADIAN CITIES AND REGIONS, 1985-1 993 zyx The location and type of Japanese property investments in Canada are examined as a case study of the increasing globalization of property markets and the remarkable rise ofJapanese international investors in the late zyxwvut 7 980s. Un- published official statistics and company interviews indi- cate investment patterns had uneven implications for Canada’s cities and regions. Even though Toronto is of- ten seen as Canada‘s world city, Japanese investors as a whole overlooked the commercial potential of its prop- erty markets. The majority of their real estate investments took advantage of lapanese tourism growth in Pacific Canada and were associated with hotels andgoff courses in Vancouver and its surrounding region. The author stresses the importance of Japaneseperceptions, as well as local opportunities and constraints, in shaping the geography of Japanesereal estate investment in Canada. Key Words: Canadian property markets; Japanese in- vestors; real estate investment L’emplacement et le type des investissements japonais au Canada sont examines comme etude de cas sur la globalisation croissante des march& de biens et la mon- te‘e remarquable des actionnaires internationaux japo- nais d la fin des annees 80. Les statistiques officielles non-publiees montrent des implications ine‘gales dans les villes et les regions du Canada. Bien que Toronto soit conside‘r6 souvent comme la ville mondiale du Canada, les actionnaires japonais dans I’ensemble ont negligP son potentiel commercial. La majorite‘ des investisse- ments sur les biens immobiliers ont pris avantage de la croissance du tourismejaponais au Canada Pacifique, et fut li6e aux hotels et terrains de golf d Vancouver et dans les environs de la ville. L’auteur souligne I’importance des perceptions japonaises, aussi bien que les occasions et contraintes locales, en faconnant la geographie de leur investissement de biens au Canada. Mots-cle‘s : investissement de biens au Canada; action- naires japonais; investissements irnmobiliers The growth of Japanese involvement in overseas prop- erty acquisitions and developments has been remark- able. Prior to 1985 there was hardly any Japanese interest at all in overseas real estate. But in the nine years be- tween 1985 and 1993, Japaneseinvestment in the order of US$60 billion was directed to property markets in North America, Asia, and Europe, especially high-profile office and hotel acquisitions (Foreign Press Center 1993). Figure 1 indicates that annual flows of Japanese invest- ment peaked in fiscal year (FY) 1989 and then declined dramatically in the early 1990s. The reasons for this sud- den burst of overseas real estate investment correlates to the emergence of the so-called Japanese ‘bubble economy’ of 1987-1 990, centered on rising domestic property and stock market values, and access to vast amounts of funds at relatively low rates of interest (Wood 1992; Oizumi 1994). Although this source of capital dried up suddenly, following the ’bursting of the bubble economy’ in 1991, the new and almost unexpected in- terest in overseas property accompanied a more sus- tained ’internationalization’ as Japanmatured into one of the ’triad’ of economic global powers (Ohmae 1985; Hook and Weiner 1992). Certain studies have examined the general features The Canadian Geographer/ Le Ceographe canadien 40, no zyxwvutsrq 4 (1 996) 292-305 @/ 1996 Canadian Association of Geographers / L’Association canadienne des geographes