Japan’s Prices Cleared 2 Percent Again

The number out this morning puts Japan back over the Bank of Japan’s 2 percent line.

Japan’s Statistics Bureau published the September price index at 8:30. The core measure, which leaves out fresh food, rose 2.1 percent from a year earlier. That is the series the bank sets against its inflation line. The broader index, with fresh food included, rose 2.1 percent too.

December’s core rate was 2.4 percent. From January through August it stayed under 2 percent, and August was 1.7 percent. September is the first month back over the line.

It would have been higher. The bureau estimates that ending the provisional gasoline tax, together with the other energy measures, took 0.82 percentage points off the annual rate. Gasoline was down 2.6 percent from last September, and electricity was down 2.4 percent. The relief showed up on the utility bill.

A cheaper bag of rice left the sushi counter alone.

Koshihikari is the famous brand people ask for by name. The bureau measures other ordinary rice separately, and that rice fell 21.1 percent from last September. Other food, setting aside the fresh items that jump around every month, was up 2.9 percent, a little faster than August’s 2.7. Restaurant meals as a group were up 2.5 percent.

Sushi served in a restaurant was up 15.5 percent. One plate can rise that fast while the average meal rises 2.5, because the average includes every other lunch. At a sushi counter, 15.5 percent is the change that matters.

In Tokyo’s 23 wards, a tonkatsu set in the bureau’s September survey was 1,516 yen. Cheaper rice left that menu where it was.

A room in the national index costs 4.6 percent more than last September, and 3.2 percent less than August. Against last fall, the night is up. Against the summer that just ended, September eased.

In August the same index was 1.4 percent below the previous August. September is when a room became more expensive than the year before.

If you are booking a room for this autumn, compare it with last autumn.