Japan's economy grew just 0.4 per cent in the April-June quarter, although economists and the government said the recovery would continue.
The growth rate, hit by flat capital spending, compared with a consensus forecast of 1 per cent and a revised 1.6 per cent growth in January-March and 1.8 per cent in October-December.
Although the weak showing added to growing worries about recent soft economic indicators and falls in stock markets worldwide, economists said other data suggested that Japanese capital spending remained brisk and that this should show either in revised GDP figures for the quarter or in July-September figures.
Capital spending was unchanged from the previous quarter, compared with a forecast 2.0 per cent gain.
But data earlier this week showed private-sector machinery orders, a key gauge of trends in capital spending, surged by a record 10.3 per cent in April-June from the previous quarter.
"Given July-September capex will likely be stronger than what we got today, the growth rate might get better. Corporate earnings are still improving and this is gradually helping capital spending and personal incomes," said Mr Mamoru Yamazaki, chief economist at Barclays Capital.
On an annualised basis, the April-June growth rate translated into 1.7 per cent, compared with a pace in excess of 6 per cent in the preceding quarters.
Private sector consumption, which accounts for over half of all economic activity, rose 0.6 per cent in April-June from the previous quarter.
This was short of the market's forecast for a 1.0 per cent rise, but economists see consumption holding up in July-September, helped by television sales ahead of the Olympics and a surge in sales of summer goods such as air conditioners and beer due to a heatwave across most of the country.