Japan Reports Inflation Hit 4 Percent, 41-year High in December

People with shopping bags walk across a traffic intersection towards a train station near a shopping street in the Ueno district in Tokyo on Dec. 30, 2022. Hiro Komae/AP Photo

TOKYO—Japan’s consumer inflation rate hit a 41-year high of 4 percent in December, as prices for everything from burgers to gas surged.

That rate is still relatively low, compared to some other nations, including the U.S. Japan, the world’s third-largest economy, has been fending off deflation, or chronically falling prices, for decades.