Japanese stocks tumbled on Wednesday, led by a sell-off in tech firms after their US counterparts skidded on concerns over government regulation.
The Nikkei share average dropped 1.7 per cent to 20,951.42 in midmorning trade.
Toyota Motor dropped 3.0 per cent, Nissan Motor fell 3.2 per cent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group shed 2.4 per cent, SMFG declined 3.0 per cent and Daiwa Securities was off 2.7 per cent.
Tech shares stumbled, with semiconductor equipment makers Tokyo Electron and Advantest Corp both sliding 4.7 per cent, reports Reuters.
Panasonic Corp fell 6.0 per cent after the United States began a federal field investigation into last week’s fatal crash and vehicle fire of major battery customer Tesla Inc.
The broader Topix dropped 1.5 per cent to 1,692.09.