Japan's average monthly household spending in August dropped a real 0.6 percent from a year earlier to 299,641, yen marking the fifth straight month of decline, the government said Friday.

The drop was mainly attributed to falling expenditures on education and entertainment, the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry said in a preliminary report.

Education spending fell 11.7 percent to 8,613 yen as people spent less on regular and supplementary tuition fees, while spending on entertainment dropped 3.1 percent to 34,233 yen.

Areas where spending rose were housing, up 14.2 percent to 20,949, yen and medical services, up 15.0 percent to 13,220 yen.