Japan's Nikkei share average fell in a broad sell-off on Wednesday, tracking Wall Street's overnight declines on worries about slowing growth as the trade war between the United States and China intensified.
The Nikkei index (.N225) fell 2.62% to 32,147.04 by the midday break, recovering from an earlier drop of nearly 4%.
The broader Topix (.TOPX) fell 2.1% to 2,380.84.
The index swung wildly this week, closing 6% higher on Tuesday, following a 7.8% decline on Monday that sent the index to a 1-1/2-year low.
"Investors are uncertain about how much further the Nikkei could fall. They are trying to find where the bottom is," said Hiroyuki Ueno, chief strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Asset Management.
"But the Nikkei had fallen enough to a level that looks cheap this week. The market is now monitoring if the index could fall below Monday's low."
The S&P 500 sold off sharply on Tuesday to close below 5,000 points for the first time in almost a year, reversing a strong morning rally as investor hopes faded for any U.S. delays or concessions on tariffs ahead of a midnight deadline.
In Japan, technology stocks led the Nikkei's losses, with chip-testing equipment maker Advantest (6857.T) falling 6.64% and chip-making equipment maker Tokyo Electron (8035.T) down 4.12%.
Technology investor SoftBank Group (9984.T) fell 5.96%.
The yen's gain against the dollar weighed on exporters. The Japanese currency rose to as high as 145.13 yen to the dollar on safe-haven bets.
A stronger Japanese currency tends to hurt shares of exporters, as it decreases the value of overseas profits in yen terms when firms repatriate them to Japan.
