TOKYO, June 22 (Xinhua) -- Japan's core consumer prices rose in May from a year earlier, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said Friday.

According to the ministry, core consumer prices increased 0.7 percent in May from a year earlier, as a result of higher energy costs.

Prices rose for the 17th straight month, the statistics bureau said, but still remain well below the Bank of Japan's (BOJ) lofty 2 percent inflation target.

This is owing to consumer and household spending remaining penny-wise amid stagnant wage increases and what BOJ chief Haruhiko Kuroda has described as an ongoing "deflationary mindset" in Japan.

The pace of increase in the consumer price index excluding volatile fresh food prices was in line with median market expectations to remain unchanged from April's reading.

The "core-core" CPI, which excludes both fresh food and energy prices, meanwhile, rose 0.3 percent from a year prior, the ministry also said.