Tokyo shares have opened lower following overnight falls of Wall Street stocks on profit-taking, while the US dollar slipped.
The Nikkei index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange gave up 216.67 points or 1.42 per cent to 15,007.44 in the first minutes of trading on Wednesday.
A lack of fresh trading incentives was also partly to blame for the weakness at the Tokyo bourse, said Kenichi Hirano, Tachinbana Securities market analyst.
"There is a real dearth of trading cues right now, which is in part responsible for the low volume we've seen in recent days," he told Dow Jones Newswires.
Traders have been squaring positions for technical reasons, ahead of expirations of major options and futures contracts on Friday, he added.
US shares' weakness overnight on profit-taking also weighed on the Tokyo market.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 67.43 (0.41 per cent) to 16,351.25 on Tuesday.
The broad-based S&P 500 shed 9.54 (0.51 per cent) to 1,867.63, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index lost 27.26 (0.63 per cent) at 4,307.19, its fourth loss in as many sessions.
Analysts also blamed the yen's strength against the US dollar for adding pressure on Tokyo shares.
The greenback stood at Y102.88, falling from Y102.94 in New York on Tuesday.
The euro was $US1.3855 and Y142.50, mixed from $US1.3863 and Y142.73 in New York.
