Because of having an anti-arthritic effect, inhibiting bone fracture induced by arthritis and having a high safety, benzophenone derivatives represented by the following general formula or salts thereof are useful as remedies for arthritis with favorable dynamics in vivo: wherein R1 represents an optionally substituted heterocycle, substituted phenyl, etc. Z represents alkylene, etc. R2 representsoptionally alkyl-blocked carboxyl, etc. R3 represents an optionally blocked hydroxy, etc. R4 represents an optionally substituted cycloalkyloxy, etc. and R5 represents hydrogen, etc. Moreover, thesecompounds have an AP-1 activity inhibitory effect, which makes them useful as preventives and remedies for diseases in which the overexpression of AP-1 participates.