The Bank of Japan left interest rates unchanged on Friday, after a decision to hike them in July pushed the yen sharply higher and fuelled turmoil across world markets.

Japan’s key inflation gauge accelerated in August for a fourth consecutive month, hours before the Bank of Japan is scheduled to wrap up its latest policy decision meeting.

Japan's core consumer inflation accelerated for the fourth straight month in August and tracked comfortably above the central bank's 2% target, data showed on Friday, keeping alive expectations for further interest rate hikes.

Japanese inflation rose slightly in August, with prices up 2.8 percent year-on-year, official data showed Friday, hours before the Bank of Japan was widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged.

Japan’s prime minister has demanded an explanation from Beijing over the fatal stabbing of a schoolboy in the second knife attack on Japanese children in China in recent months. The 10-year-old boy was stabbed by a man on his way to class Wednesday about 200 meters (650 feet) from the gates of the Japanese school in the southern city of Shenzhen,

Japan's ambassador to Beijing has asked for more security for Japanese nationals in China after a 10-year-old Japanese boy was killed this week in a knife attack that was the second to target school students.

Some Japanese companies in China have offered to send their staff and their families back home after a 10-year-old Japanese boy was fatally stabbed in the Chinese city of Shenzhen, a Japanese executive and employees of Japanese firms in Beijing said on Friday.