TOKYO (CNN) -- Japan confirmed Friday that it has sunk into recession, announcing that's its gross domestic product shrank for a second consecutive quarter.

The Economic Planning Agency said Japan's real gross domestic product between January and March of this year fell 1.3 percent from the previous quarter.

Last quarter, the economy shrank 0.2 percent.

Two back-to-back quarters of negative growth is generally accepted as the definition of a recession.

The results for the quarter tipped growth for the entire fiscal year into negative territory for the first time in more than two decades.

It is the first time since the 1974-75 fiscal year that the world's second-largest economy has been in recession. In that year the GDP, the value of all goods and services produced in the economy, contracted by 0.7 percent.

Since the figures are for the first three months of the year, they were not expected to have a major impact on the financial markets which are more concerned about where the economy is headed.

But they are expected to add to the overall mood of gloom affecting the economy, analysts said.

Economists attributed the contraction to a sharp loss of business and consumer confidence after the eruption of economic turmoil in Asia and a string of collapses at domestic financial institutions late last year.

Most economists also see little reason to be optimistic for growth in the current business year. They have forecast on average meagre growth of 0.8 percent, saying that the government's 16 trillion yen ($111 billion) stimulus package announced in April would be the sole support preventing the economy from sliding further.

That mood has been driving Tokyo's 225-share Nikkei stock average down to its lowest levels since January and the Japanese yen to its weakest level in nearly eight years.

Japanese officials on Friday dubbed the yen's latest slide excessive and vowed to act if needed to stem further falls.

But they came up short when asked if further policy steps were in the works to restore confidence and bring back growth, analysts said.

"I don't think it reflects fundamentals," Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto was quoted by Kyodo news agency as saying when asked about the yen's slide to 144 to the dollar.

Meanwhile, Hashimoto on Friday easily survived a no-confidence motion launched against him by opposition parties over his handling of the country's ailing economy.

The 500-seat Lower House of parliament defeated the motion by a vote of 273 to 207, with 20 votes not cast.

The motion accused Hashimoto of poor management of the economy and failing to address political corruption following recent financial scandals involving bureaucrats.

Hashimoto had been expected to survive the vote, submitted by the Democratic Party of Japan, along with the Liberal Party and Japan Communist Party, because his ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has an 11-seat majority in the Lower House.

The Socialists and Sakigake Party, an LDP splinter group, which both pulled out of an alliance with Hashimoto earlier this month, joined forces with the LDP to defeat the motion.