An index monitoring tertiary industry activity in Japan was up a seasonally adjusted 0.9 percent on month in January, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said on Wednesday - coming in at 100.6.
That topped forecasts for an increase of 0.6 percent following the 0.4 percent decline in December.
Among the components that moved higher were wholesale and retail trade, finance, personal services, communications, transportation and learning support.
Moving lower were health care, utilities, technical services and compound services. Real estate was flat.
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