TOKYO—Japan’s core consumer prices halted a 12-month run of declines in August, bolstered by higher energy costs and the impact of a tourism campaign, bringing some relief to central bank efforts to push inflation towards its elusive 2 percent target. Nationwide prices were flat compared with a year earlier, due to a tug of war between rising energy costs and lower mobile phone fees, data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications showed, while lodging prices surged a record 46.6 percent following a tourism discount campaign a year earlier. The result was in line with a forecast by economists in a Reuters poll, following a 0.2 percent decline in July. Weakness in private consumption that makes up more than half the economy weighed on core consumer inflation. It was the first time since July 2020 that core CPI, which excludes fresh food but includes oil prices, emerged from negative …