Even Japan is fighting inflation now

By US standards, Japan’s inflation rate in May might feel paltry. Year on year, the consumer price index rose 2.5%, compared to a heated 8.6% in the US that same month.

But to a country that has grown unused to inflation over the past three decades, even 2.5% hurts. Japan’s current encounter with inflation shows how factors like the Russia-Ukraine war, supply chain snags, and oil prices are combining to affect even one of the world’s most deflation-prone economies.