On December 7, 2012, the working group of the finance committee of the Financial Services Agency of Japan (the “Working Group”) issued its final report (the “Final Report”) with respect to the reform of the legal regime of Japanese real estate investment trusts (“J-REITs”). The Japanese government plans to submit a bill to effect the reform of J-REITs in the current Diet session.

A. PURPOSE OF J-REIT REFORM -

The main purpose of the Working Group was to review the current J-REIT system, which started in 2001, and to propose reforms for improvements. In order to increase the attractiveness of J-REITs to investors around the globe and lead to greater assets and better management efficiency, an urgent priority was to make the J-REIT system comparable to the global standard. The Working Group was particularly focused on (i) improvements to financial stability and (ii) the implementation of mechanisms to attain more trust from investors