Consumer prices in Japan edged up at...

Consumer prices in Japan edged up at an average pace of 0.1% during 1987, the smallest rise since 1958, the Statistics Bureau reported. The bureau also announced that consumer prices in the greater Tokyo region, considered an early indicator of price movements in the rest of Japan, fell 0.2% in January from December, but were 1.2% higher than in January, 1987. Prices in the Tokyo area have been rising since before last year. Although the pace of their growth is modest, the trend reverses a series of declines during 1986, when the yen’s appreciation helped cut import costs.