Nearly 90% of Japanese felt prices rising from a year earlier, the highest in 14 years, a Bank of Japan survey showed Wednesday, as Russia's war against Ukraine and a sharp drop in the yen have sent energy and food prices higher.
Accelerating inflation should come as a relief to the BOJ, which has been struggling to attain its 2 percent target in a country long stuck in deflationary mindset. But cost-push inflation is seen by the central bank as transitory and households are now feeling pain without strong wage growth, a key issue in Sunday's House of Councilors election.
In the quarterly survey, a combined 89.0% of respondents said prices went up "significantly" or "slightly" from a year before, up 7.8 percentage points from the previous poll in March and the highest since September 2008. Of the total, 82.9% said rising prices are "unfavorable."