Technology stocks knocked the Nikkei down 4 per cent today after a slide on the Nasdaq and disappointment over Japan's latest economic package.
Kyocera, the world's largest maker of integrated circuit ceramic packages, fell 8.93 per cent to 10,600 yen, helping to knock the tech-sensitive Nikkei average down 542.00 points or 4.05 per cent to a close of 12,841.76.
Computer and chip-maker Fujitsu lost 3.72 per cent to 1,579 yen and electronics parts maker TDK slipped 6.57 per cent to 7,400 yen.
The Japanese government's emergency economic package had two main pillars - a deadline for banks to purge sour loans from their balance sheets and a fund to absorb banks' hefty shareholdings that have made them vulnerable to stock market volatility. But analysts said both parts have holes in them.
The package failed to refer to banks' "grey-zone" loans mainly to troubled builders and retailers - the real headache for the banking sector and the nation's economy - and it also failed to give a definite time frame for either the stock-buying fund or for planned reforms in stock taxes.
Softbank, which invests in several Internet stocks on the Nasdaq, fell 5.01 per cent to 4,550 yen after the Nasdaq resumed falling and lost 3.62 per cent on Friday.
Toyoda, a rubber parts maker that is diversifying into new technology areas, took a nosedive to close down by its daily limit of 400 yen or 16.36 per cent at 2,045 yen.