Japan September headline and core CPI exceed 2% for first time since December 2025

The significance here is breadth rather than any single print: all three gauges clearing 2% together points to inflation that is spreading through the basket, not just sitting in energy or food. That matters for the Bank of Japan's policy calculus, since broad-based price pressure is harder to dismiss as transitory. For markets, the read-across is to rate expectations and the yen, where the open question is whether this breadth persists into coming months or proves a one-off convergence of the three measures.