China and Japan reached an agreement over the discharge of wastewater from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant, the two governments said on Friday, paving the way for a restart of seafood shipments from Japan to China.

Japan began discharging treated water from Fukushima into the Pacific Ocean in an operation it insists is safe, a view backed by the UN atomic agency.

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 consumer inflation rate likely picked up for the fourth straight month in August, a Reuters poll of 20 economists showed, tracking comfortably above the central bank's 2% target and keeping alive expectations for more rate hikes ahead.

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.

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.