Japan is experiencing positive developments “unlike before” that would enable it to officially end a long-standing battle with deflation, as a virtuous cycle of price and wage growth “is beginning to emerge,” the government said Friday. In its white paper, the government noted that Japanese firms are now much quicker and more proactive in passing on increased costs following the yen’s sharp decline, which inflated the prices of imported raw materials, and labor shortages that have necessitated higher wages to secure workers. While the yen’s fall to historically low levels boosted import costs …