U.S. real estate is a prized investment,...

U.S. real estate is a prized investment, according to a group of Japanese executives who ranked American properties above government bonds and stocks.

While 58% of the Japanese investment decision makers polled said real estate holdings are very important to their company’s overall investment strategy, 64% said U.S. properties will be very important to their portfolios in the next two years, according to the study commissioned by Cushman & Wakefield Inc., a leading commercial real estate firm.

The study, released last week, was conducted by Louis Harris & Associates, which held interviews in Japan with 45 executives at leading Japanese institutions during the fall.

Fifty-two percent of those polled found the Northeast the most attractive region for real estate investment. Of those who currently hold U.S. properties, 67% hold property in Los Angeles, 48% in New York, 27% in Washington, 24% in Hawaii, 24% in Chicago, 24% in San Francisco, 15% in Dallas-Fort Worth and 15% in San Diego.

Most of those surveyed hold investments in office buildings, followed by land zoned for commercial use and hotels.