The nation's consumer prices dropped for a second month as central bank Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda struggles to spur inflation with record asset purchases and negative interest rates.
Consumer prices excluding fresh food fell 0.3 percent in April from a year earlier, after dropping by the same amount in March, according to a statistics bureau report on Friday. Economists in a Bloomberg survey forecast a decline of 0.4 percent.
The lack of price growth will intensify pressure on the Bank of Japan to consider further monetary stimulus after Kuroda disappointed the markets by taking no action at April's meeting. The data is the final set of consumer price indicators to be released before the BOJ's board meets on June 15-16.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.