Tokyo - Tokyo stocks lost 0.64 percent Thursday, following a downturn on Wall Street and as a stronger yen took the air out of exporters.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index declined 95.95 points to finish at 14,973.53, while the Topix index of all first-section shares slipped 0.11 percent, or 1.32 points, to 1,237.75.
“The market continues to look top-heavy at 15,000, and will consolidate, pushed down by the dollar's weakness,” said SMBC Nikko Securities general manager of equities Hiroichi Nishi.
The Dow on Wednesday snapped a four-day streak of record highs owing to profit-taking and ended down 0.60 percent.
The losses also came after the World Bank trimmed its 2014 global growth forecast to 2.8 percent from its January forecast of 3.2 percent.
On Thursday morning, Japanese government data showed machinery tool orders - a leading indicator of corporate investment - fell 9.1 percent in April from a month ago, although the drop was smaller than expected.
Market heavyweight Fast Retailing, which operates the Uniqlo clothing chain, dropped 2.06 percent to 33,510 yen, while Renesas Electronics eased 2.18 percent to 806 yen.
Toyota edged up 0.10 percent to 5,880 yen, recovering earlier losses after the world's biggest automaker issued another mass vehicle recall on Wednesday.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries rose 1.24 percent to 649 yen after the leading Nikkei business daily said the Japanese firm and Germany's Siemens are to bid nearly $10 billion to snap up some energy assets owned by France's Alstom.
The joint offer of one trillion yen, which may also include electronics and machinery maker Hitachi, could stymie General Electric's $17 billion offer for Alstom's energy business, the report said.
In currency markets the dollar was at 102.07 yen, against 102.03 yen in New York but well down from the 102.27 yen in Tokyo earlier Wednesday. - Sapa-AFP