The Japanese government has begun considering declaring an official end to deflation, sources familiar with the matter said Saturday, some two decades after it acknowledged that prices were falling moderately. While Japan has maintained that the country is “not in a state of deflation,” it has yet to be convinced that deflation is already a thing of the past. It has struggled for years to dispel deeply-rooted public perceptions that prices and wages will not rise. But the recent bout of inflation, driven mostly by higher import costs, and the prospect of sustainable wage growth is seen as clea…