Japanese equities fell for a fifth straight session on Wednesday, tracking an overnight selloff on Wall Street as US President Donald Trump’s increasingly aggressive rhetoric over Greenland weighed on global risk sentiment.
The Nikkei 225 slid about 1% to around 52,450, while the broader Topix Index dropped 1.3% to roughly 3,580.
At home, Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama urged calm after JGB yields surged on mounting fiscal concerns tied to proposals to cut the 8% sales tax on food.
Investors also braced for a snap election on Feb. 8, as Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi seeks to consolidate power and advance a more expansionary fiscal agenda.
Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan is widely expected to keep policy unchanged later this week.
Technology and financial stocks led the decline, with losses in Disco Corp (-1.4%), Advantest (-1.4%), SoftBank Group (-2.3%), Mitsubishi UFJ (-2.9%) and Sumitomo Mitsui (-2.8%).
