The key gauge of Tokyo consumer prices shed 0.1 percent in October from the month before, including a drop in beef prices stemming from the nation's first case of mad cow disease, the government said Friday.
Following the finding last month of Japan's first case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, as mad cow disease is formally known, prices of sirloin and beef shoulder dipped 0.7 percent, a government official said in announcing preliminary results as of mid-October.
By comparison, pork loin prices were up 1.7 percent and shoulder prices were up 2.1 percent, said the official of the Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications Ministry.