Japan faced a land prices decline for a 14th-consecutive year nationwide in 2004, but a recent slowdown in the pace of declines can serve as sign that the situation at the country’s long-struggling property market might be improving.

Japanese residential land prices declined an average 4.6% last year, slower than in 2003, according to the data provided by an annual government survey of property prices released on March 23. Commercial-property prices shrank 5.6%, compared with the previous year when they lost 7.4%.

The report suggested land prices are getting more stable in areas besides Tokyo, where some fashionable, centrally located neighborhoods have even staged price increase in recent years. Land prices in some regions of Osaka, the biggest city in western Japan, grew for the first time in more than 10 years, alongside with prices for parts of the commercial-property market in Kyoto.

The survey draws attention of many experts since it is one of the few thorough reports on Japanese land prices. It also is closely watched because there are close ties between property prices and Japan’s economy and financial system.

The report provides the latest information in a string of mixed data on whether Japan’s economy is facing stable growth after more than a decade of stagnation. The government recently disclosed new data that prove the economy increases in the October-December period; other statistics meanwhile show decline in consumer prices and department-store sales.

The new report demonstrates that rural areas haven’t succeeded as well as the big cities. And suburbs have been harmed by an outflow of people attracted by lower residential-land prices in Tokyo and other big cities. That has helped to stabilize prices in the cities, while regional areas are facing faster price drops than in the cities.

Overall, prices of residential properties in rural areas fell by 5.4%, the first time in eight years that the rate of decline slowed from the previous year, according to the Wall Street Journal.