Japan's housing starts down for fifth month

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TOKYO, Dec 27 (AFP): Housing starts in Japan slumped for a fifth straight month in November as stricter safety rules continued to weigh on construction activity, official figures showed today.
Housing starts fell 27 per cent to 84,252 units in November from a year earlier, the ministry of land, infrastructure and transport reported.
The fall was slightly bigger than economists had expected but less severe compared with the previous months.
Housing starts had dropped 35 per cent in October, 44.0 per cent in September, 43.3 per cent in August and 23.4 per cent in July.
Japan tightened construction regulations in June after a Japanese architect caused a nationwide scandal by using fabricating data to build apartment blocks that could be vulnerable to collapse during even a moderate tremor.