Abe's Efforts to Cut Mobile Phone Bills Undercut Kuroda's BOJ

  • Cost of mobile phone charges dropped for 25th straight month
  • The decline was biggest factor in BOJ cutting price forecast
A man uses a smartphone at a pier in Tokyo, Japan, on Monday, Nov. 6, 2017. The Japanese Cabinet Office is scheduled to release third-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) data on Nov. 15, 2017.Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg
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In 2015 Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said mobile phone contracts were too expensive and called for them to be cut. Since then, prices of phone service contracts have fallen for 25 straight months, on a year-on year basis.

That’s good for consumers but it’s bad for efforts by Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda to generate sustained inflation of 2 percent.