TOKYO, April 7 (Reuters) - The Bank of Japan's (BOJ) holdings of Japanese government bonds (JGBs) hit a record by the end of March, the central bank's data showed on Friday.

The BOJ held 582 trillion yen ($4.42 trillion) of JGBs at the end of the nation's fiscal year, the largest amount since the central bank started publishing data in 2013.

($1 = 131.6800 yen) (Reporting by Junko Fujita; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)