There were 60.94 million mobile phone subscriptions in Japan at the end of March, topping 60 million for the first time, according to the Telecommunications Carriers Association. The number increased by 9.8 million from a year earlier, the industry group said.

NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan's largest mobile phone operator, added 6.67 million new subscriptions, or 68 percent of the increase, reflecting the popularity of the i-mode Internet service. The J-Phone Group had 1.81 million new subscriptions, followed by an additional 860,000 from the "au" group of KDDI Corp.

The Tu-Ka Cellular Phone Group, which also belongs to KDDI, increased its subscriptions by 460,000.