Overall bank lending in Japan was up 3.0 percent on year in February, the Bank of Japan said on Friday - coming in at 616.945 trillion yen.
That was shy of expectations for an increase of 3.2 percent and down from 3.1 percent in January.
Excluding trusts, lending climbed an annual 3.4 percent to 539.658 trillion yen, while lending from trusts rose 0.5 percent to 77.287 trillion yen.
Lending from foreign banks jumped 18.5 percent on year to 4.454 trillion yen - moderating from the 19.2 percent jump in the previous month.