Tokyo’s markets were substantially lower Friday as the Nikkei 225 dropped 2.37 percent to 16,764.09, an five-month low, and the Topix index was 2.96 percent lower to an eight-month low of 1,633.93.
The Mothers market of small and mid-caps was down 1.84 percent to 762.53.
The financial services sector saw wide declines after the Bank of Japan said it would put ¥1 trillion into the banking system as equities markets declined globally.
Mizuho Financial Group (TYO: 8411; NYSE: MFG) fell 1.7 percent to ¥707,000, while Aozora Bank (TYO: 8304), which just went public in November, was 3.2 percent lower to ¥387 after having been as much as 12 percent lower during the session.
Mitsubishi UFJ (TYO: 8306; NYSE: MTU) dropped 3.3 percent to ¥1.18 million, investment bank Nomura (TYO: 8604; NYSE: NMR; SGX: N33) was down 4.8 percent to ¥2,080, and Shinsei Bank (TYO: 8303) fell 9.9 percent to ¥390.
All of these declines came even though Japanese banks are said to be less exposed to subprime loans than banks in the US and in Europe.
Exporters were also lower on the session.
Carmaker Toyota (TYO: 7203.T; NYSE: TM; LSE: TYT) was 2.5 percent lower to ¥7,090, while Sony (TYO: 6758; NYSE: SNE) was down 3.7 percent to ¥5,780 and camera manufacturer Canon (TYO: 7751; NYSE: CAJ) dropped 3.9 percent to ¥6,240.