The Japanese government has revised the country's first quarter economic growth even higher to an annualised rate of 6.1% from 5.6% thanks to rising inventories.
The new figures confirmed that the world's second largest economy, fed by booming exports to Asia, grew for the eighth straight quarter, achieving the strongest growth among the world's top seven industrial nations. Japan outpaced the US which grew 4.4% over the same period.
On a quarterly basis, Japan's real gross domestic product grew 1.5%, faster than the 1.4% estimated on May 18.
The upgrade was mainly due to a higher increase in private sector component inventories - such as construction machinery, semiconductor processing equipment, autos, boilers and turbines - which contributed 0.5 points to quarterly growth.
