A report from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications revealed on Tuesday that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in Japan fell to 2.8 percent in July from 2.9 percent in June. This was the lowest jobless rate since April.

Economists had forecast the reading to remain unchanged m-o-m at 2.9 percent.

According to the official data, the number of unemployed decreased by 120,000 from the previous month to 1.90 million, while employment rose by 420,000 to 67.08 million. Meanwhile, the labor force increased by 280,000 to 68.99 million and those detached from the labor force fell 310,000 to 41.34 million. Elsewhere, the job-to-applicant ratio increased from 1.13 in June to 1.15 in July. The participation rate came in at 62.5 in July, up from 62.4 a month earlier.