NTT DoCoMo Inc. retained the top spot in the nation's mobile phone market in terms of net new subscribers in August, the Telecommunications Carriers Association said Friday.

DoCoMo's new subscriptions exceeded cancellations by 161,000, the association said.

KDDI Corp. grabbed second spot with a net increase of 125,200 subscribers to its au mobile phone service, followed by J-Phone Co. with 106,200 net new subscribers, the TCA said.

The Tu-Ka Group suffered a net decrease of 7,100.

While DoCoMo has maintained the top spot since June, its lead over rival companies has narrowed due partly to sluggish sales of its third-generation cell phone service.

Meanwhile, the number of mobile phone and personal handy-phone system subscribers totaled 77.26 million nationwide at the end of August, up 0.5 percent from a month earlier, the association said.

Mobile phone services accounted for about 71.62 million of the subscribers, also up 0.5 percent.