Core Consumer Price Indicators

In analyzing price trends, core indicators that remove the effects of various temporary and special factors from observed movements in consumer prices are used.

Together with the macroeconomic output gap, labor supply and demand, expected inflation, and wage growth, core indicators are important for understanding the underlying rate of price inflation.

The charts and data provided are intended to supply information to a wide range of users interested in financial and economic matters. Their content may be changed, revised, or discontinued without prior notice. Consultation with the Bank of Japan's Research and Statistics Department is required for commercial reprinting or reproduction, and the source must be identified when quoting, reprinting, or reproducing the content.

The published materials cover consumer prices excluding special factors such as institutional changes and other factors, along with the trimmed mean, weighted median, mode, and ratios of items with price increases or decreases based on the distribution of price changes by item. The former consists of trial estimates derived from figures published by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications after excluding the effects of changes in consumption tax rates, education tuition-waiver policies, the 2021 reduction in mobile phone communication charges, travel support measures, and relief measures for gasoline, electricity, and gas costs. The education tuition-waiver policies include the school lunch fee-waiver policy introduced in April 2026.

Charts and data are provided as analytical data, while details of the methods of compilation and the characteristics are described in Kawamoto, Nakahama, and Hogan (2015), “Core Consumer Price Indicators and Their Characteristics — Focusing on Their Relationship with Business Cycles,” and Shiratsuka (2015), “On the Performance of Core Consumer Price Indicators.” The definition of special factors may be changed without prior notice in the future.