The price structure that showed the price differences between regions and store types had been grasped by the National Survey of Prices conducted once every five years. However, as changes in the consumption and distribution structure had been accelerated, it became difficult to understand the changes in the price structure accurately by conducting a statistical survey on a 5-year cycle. Therefore, the National Survey of Prices was constructively reviewed, and items related to the price structure that had been grasped by the above survey were added to the Retail Price Survey as the "Structural Survey".
Accordingly, the name of the existing Retail Price Survey, which had been conducted to grasp the price trends, was changed to "Trend Survey". It was decided that the National Survey of Prices would no longer be conducted.

The Retail Price Survey (Structural Survey) aims to grasp price differences between regions, such as prefectures. 57 items (58 specifications) that are expected to show price differences between regions and account for a large percentage of the household consumption expenditure, such as "Non-glutinous rice", "Food wrap", and "Face lotion(excluding counseling)", are surveyed.

Survey results are expected to be used as:

• Basic data for formulation of government measures for employment and social security and preparation of white papers by comparing prices between regions, and clarifying the relation between living standards and prices in each region
• Basic data for economic plans and price policies for each region formulated by local authorities
• Data for analysis of price differences between regions and price structures by private research institutions

The survey on price differences between regions covers 167 municipalities subject to the Trend Survey, plus 91 cities other than the municipalities subject to the Trend Survey, with a goal of covering 50% or more of the population in each prefecture. The survey is mainly aimed at supermarkets that are considered to represent the whole area of the city surveyed in view of store size.

In principle, the results of the Retail Price Survey (Structural Survey) are scheduled to be released by June in the year following the survey year.