TOKYO, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- Japan's core consumer prices rose 3.1 percent on average in 2025, marking the fourth straight annual increase, government data showed Friday.

People shop at a used clothing store in Tokyo, Japan, Nov. 16, 2025. (Photo: Xinhua)

For the whole of 2025, rice prices soared 67.5 percent, the biggest rise since 1971 when comparable data became available, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.

In December alone, the nationwide consumer price index, which strips out prices of fresh food, rose 2.4 percent from a year earlier, slowing for the first time in four months from 3 percent in November, helped by government subsidies for gasoline, the data showed.

Energy prices fell 3.1 percent in the reported month from the prior year, reversing from a rise of 2.5 percent in November, while prices for food, excluding fresh items, increased 6.7 percent, decelerating from a 7 percent gain in November.

Core-core CPI, which strips away both energy and fresh food to reflect underlying price trends, eased to 2.9 percent in December from 3 percent a month earlier.