Overall bank lending in Japan was up 3.4 percent on year in May, the Bank of Japan said on Thursday - coming in at 602.335 trillion yen.
That exceeded expectations for an increase of 3.1 percent and was up from 3.2 percent in April.
Excluding trusts, lending climbed an annual 3.8 percent to 525.376 trillion yen - accelerating from 3.5 percent in the previous month.
Lending from trusts rose 1.1 percent on year to 76.959 trillion yen, steady from the previous month.
Lending from foreign banks spiked an annual 8.7 percent to 3.729 trillion yen, up from 8.1 percent a month earlier.
