Japanese stocks fell sharply Tuesday morning following a huge loss on Wall Street after the failure of the financial bailout plan in the U.S., AP reported.
The benchmark Nikkei stock 225 index fell 465.62 points, or 3.96 percent, to 11,277.99 shortly after trading began on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The broader Topix index was down 3.84 percent at 1,084.52.
The U.S. House of Representatives on Monday defeated a US$700 billion emergency rescue for the U.S. financial system, shocking the capital and worldwide markets. The Dow Jones industrial average plunged nearly 800 points, the most ever drop for a single day.
The Bank of Japan on Tuesday morning pumped another 2 trillion yen (US$19.23 billion) into money markets, amid an effort among the world's central banks to calm worries about a global financial crisis.
The Bank of Japan in recent weeks has been injecting trillions of yen by the day to add liquidity into the system. The latest brings the bank's infusion to a total of 20 trillion yen (US$192.3 billion).
A widening credit crisis, which began last year in the U.S., is threatening the world's economic health and stability.
Stocks were lower across the board in Tokyo. Automakers and banking issues were among the top losers.
In currencies, the dollar traded at 104.28 yen Tuesday morning in Asia, up from 103.90 yen late Monday. The greenback fell against the euro to US$1.4369 from US$1.4472.