Japan's core consumer price index (CPI), which excludes volatile fresh food prices, rose 1.4% year over year in May, according to data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications released on Friday.
The reading was in line with the consensus forecast tracked by Investing.com, and was unchanged from the 1.4% expansion recorded in the previous month.
Meanwhile, headline inflation accelerated to 1.5% from 1.4% the previous month, but was lower than the Trading Economics forecast of 1.6%.
On a month-over-month basis, Japan's core CPI climbed 0.4% following the zero change between March and April.
The seasonally adjusted month-over-month headline inflation also quickened to 0.4% in May from 0.1% in April.