Jan 21, 2026, 12:49 GMT+7
By Junko Fujita
Reuters - Japan's Nikkei share average fell for a fifth straight session on Wednesday, pressured by global trade frictions and political uncertainties at home, while the nation's bonds staged a rally after a plunge in the previous session.
The Nikkeislid 0.5% to 52,738.17, poised for its longest losing streak in a year. The broader Topixwas down 1.1%.
The Japanese markets are in a fragile state this week, with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi set to dissolve parliament on Friday to trigger a snap election, while the central bank meets on policy the same day.
Yields on Japanese government bonds (JGBs) surged to record highs on Tuesday after Takaichi pledged to eliminate sales taxes on groceries, fuelling concerns about the country's already precarious finances.
The rout in JGBs was reminiscent of the 2022 collapse in British gilts and a warning for confidence in Japan's balance sheet. A decline in yields on most Japanese tenors on Wednesday helped defuse some of those worries.
"Today, investors are probing the market with small buys after the sharp declines of the Nikkei. The market wanted to defend the psychological line of 52,000," said Kazuaki Shimada, chief strategist at IwaiCosmo Securities.
"The declines in yields on the Japanese government bonds also eased sentiment."
Yuichiro Tamaki, the head of an influential opposition party, told Reuters on Wednesday that policymakers could correct the "abnormal" moves in assets through actions including JGB buybacks or reductions in the issuance of super-long notes.
Japan's 20-year government bond yield fell 10 basis points (bps) to 3.245%, down from an unprecedented 3.46% in the previous session. The 30-year JGB yield slipped 7.5 bps to 3.8%.
U.S. equities, which ended weaker overnight, also weighed on local stocks, with all three major Wall Street indexes closing with their biggest one-day drops in three months on concerns that fresh tariff threats from President Donald Trump against Europe could signal renewed market volatility.
Financial stocks fell, with brokerage, banking and insurance sub-indexes losing more than 2% each to become the worst-performing sectors on the Topix.

Sumber : Reuters