Every month, the Statistics Bureau of Japan publishes the national Consumer Price Index, in Japanese. The latest release covers August 2026, and is dated September 18, 2026.
On its cover is a box with three numbered lines. The first reads, in translation: the all items index is 102.2, taking 2025 as 100. Under it: up 1.9% from the same month a year earlier.
We are going to read that release. This is not investment advice, and we take no view on whether any of this is good or bad. We are translating a government statistics release.
The box on the cover
The box has three lines, for three series. The English names are the Statistics Bureau's own. Each index has 2025 set to 100.
- All items (総合): 102.2 — up 1.9% from a year earlier
- All items, less fresh food (生鮮食品を除く総合): 102.0 — up 1.7%
- All items, less fresh food and energy (生鮮食品及びエネルギーを除く総合): 102.5 — up 1.9%
In market writing, the second series is often called core, and the third core-core. The document uses neither word.
Each line of the box carries a second figure: the change from the previous month, seasonally adjusted.
- All items: the box says "the same level as the previous month". Table 2 prints that as 0.0%
- All items, less fresh food: up 0.1%
- All items, less fresh food and energy: up 0.3%
The ten major groups
Table 3 splits the index into ten major groups. For each, it prints the index and the change from a year earlier.
- Food: 103.8 — up 3.1%
- Housing: 101.2 — up 1.0%
- Fuel, light & water charges: 97.2 — down 0.3%
- Furniture & household utensils: 105.8 — up 4.9%
- Clothes & footwear: 100.1 — up 1.5%
- Medical care: 103.3 — up 3.0%
- Transportation & communication: 103.1 — up 2.3%
- Education: 95.4 — down 3.8%
- Culture & recreation: 103.7 — up 2.2%
- Miscellaneous: 100.9 — up 0.7%
The table also splits food in two.
- Fresh food: 105.5 — up 6.0%
- Food, less fresh food: 103.5 — up 2.7%
Above each figure, the table prints another in brackets. A note under the table says the brackets are the previous month's. So for food, 3.5% is July and 3.1% is August. For fresh food, 7.0% is July and 6.0% is August.
The contributions
The last row of Table 3 is headed contribution (寄与度). A note says each contribution is to the year-on-year change in the all items index. So these are percentage points out of the 1.9.
- Food: +0.87
- Transportation & communication: +0.34
- Housing: +0.22
- Culture & recreation: +0.20
- Furniture & household utensils: +0.18
- Medical care: +0.14
- Clothes & footwear: +0.04
- Miscellaneous: +0.04
- Fuel, light & water charges: −0.02
- Education: −0.12
By our arithmetic, the ten add up to 1.89. The printed change is 1.9. These are rounded figures, so treat the sum as approximate.
The table prints two more contributions, inside food: fresh food, +0.23, and food, less fresh food, +0.64.
The items the document lists
Under the table, the document lists what it calls the main components behind the change, by group and then by item. Among the items listed under rises:
- Cabbage: up 45.0% from a year earlier (contribution 0.03)
- Green tea: up 31.5% (contribution 0.03)
- Tuna fish: up 24.4% (contribution 0.05)
- Automotive insurance premium (option): up 5.9% (contribution 0.11)
Under falls, the list has one group, education.
- School fees: down 6.4% (contribution −0.14)
- High school fees (private): down 73.2% (contribution −0.15)
The list names these items. It gives no reason for any of them.
Energy, on page 3
Page 3 covers what changed since July. For all items, the change from a year earlier was 1.9% in July and 1.9% in August; the document's sentence is that the rate of increase is unchanged. For all items, less fresh food, it went from 1.8% to 1.7%.
One line under that reads: the declines in electricity and gasoline widened, and energy narrowed the rise in all items by 0.09 points. Table 5 has the figures, as changes from a year earlier.
- Energy: +0.6% in July, −0.7% in August
- Electricity: −0.1% in July, −2.4% in August
- Gasoline: −1.8% in July, −2.6% in August
A footnote to that table, labelled a trial estimate, gives the contribution of the effect of the abolition of the provisional gasoline tax rate, and of policy measures. For energy, it prints −0.62.
What the document does not say
Three things this document does not tell you.
- It does not say why cabbage, green tea or private high school fees moved as they did.
- It does not say which policy measures are inside its trial estimate.
- It makes no forecast.
What it does say is this. In August 2026, Japan's all items index was 1.9% above a year earlier. Less fresh food: 1.7%. Less fresh food and energy: 1.9%.
The schedule at the back of the release gives October 23, 2026 for the September figures. We will read it again.
Source
Statistics Bureau of Japan (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications) — 「2025年基準 消費者物価指数 全国 2026年(令和8年)8月分」, September 18, 2026: https://www.stat.go.jp/data/cpi/sokuhou/tsuki/pdf/zenkoku.pdf. This address carries the latest month; the Bureau replaces the file on each release.
Indexes (2025 = 100), percentage changes and contributions are as printed. English series and group names are the Statistics Bureau's own. The sum of the ten contributions (1.89) is LeakSquare's arithmetic from rounded figures; it is not printed in the document. This is a reading of a public document. It is not investment advice and makes no recommendation to buy or sell any security.