The value of overall bank lending in Japan was up 3.0 percent on year in March, the Bank of Japan said on Wednesday - coming in at 600.372 trillion yen.
That beat forecasts for an increase of 1.8 percent and was down from 3.3 percent in February.
Excluding trusts, lending climbed an annual 3.3 percent to 523.282 trillion yen - slowing from 3.6 percent in the previous month.
Lending from trusts rose 1.0 percent on year to 77.089 trillion yen after adding 0.9 percent a month earlier.
For the first quarter of 2023, overall lending rose 3.1 on year, lending minus trusts jumped 3.5 percent and lending from trusts was up 0.9 percent.
