Overall bank lending in Japan was up 3.2 percent on year in April, the Bank of Japan said on Thursday - coming in at 603.295 trillion yen.
That exceeded expectations for an increase of 2.9 percent and was up from 3.0 percent in March.
Excluding trusts, lending was up 3.5 percent on year at 526.067 trillion yen. Lending from trusts rose an annual 1.1 percent to 77.228 trillion yen.
Lending from foreign banks jumped 8.1 percent on year to 3.859 trillion yen, up from 3.6 percent in the previous month.
