Japan’s jobless rate rose to its highest in over a year in August, signaling a slight loosening of the labor market as speculation swirls over a Bank of Japan rate hike in the near term. The unemployment rate rose to 2.6% from 2.3% in July, the internal affairs ministry reported Friday, against a median economist expectation of 2.4%. Separate data from the labor ministry showed that the job-to-applicant ratio ticked down to 1.20 from 1.22, meaning that there were 120 job openings for every 100