TOKYO: Tokyo stocks slipped Monday morning on profit-taking after a four-day rally, as investors two key central bank meetings and the start of Japan's corporate earnings season.
"Market participants are looking for new drivers for risk this week," Bernard Aw, a Singapore-based market strategist at IG, told Bloomberg News.
"With the barrage of economic data and two major central (bank) meetings, there will not be a shortage of catalysts."
The Bank of Japan holds a two-day meeting from Wednesday with speculation growing that it will unleash more stimulus as this month's deadly earthquakes threaten an already fragile economy.
Shortly before the meeting wraps up Thursday, Japan will publish a string of economic data, including inflation and unemployment figures, while corporate earnings season also gets into full swing.
Sony, Panasonic, Nintendo, Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways are among the firms set to report results for the fiscal year through March.
The Federal Reserve will also hold its latest policy meeting this week.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange dropped 0.76 percent, or 132.87 points, to 17,439.62 by the break, while the broader Topix index of all first-section shares fell 0.66 percent, or 9.27 points, at 1,398.23.
The yen recovered against the dollar after dropping more than two percent on Friday following a report that the BoJ is considering new stimulus.
On Monday, the dollar dipped to 111.12 yen from 111.75 yen on Friday in New York.
Sony slumped more than six percent to 2,827 yen after saying on Friday it was delaying its profit forecast for the current fiscal year as it assesses the impact of the twin quakes.
The company, which like other major firms was forced to temporarily halt a regional manufacturing plant, says it will still report its results for the 2015 fiscal year as scheduled this week.
Toyota rose 0.69 percent to 5,960 yen as the world's top automaker restarted some of the plants it shuttered due in response to the quakes.
Mitsubishi Motors plunged another 4.76 percent to 480 yen, after a series of eye-watering losses that followed the automaker's admission it cheated on fuel-efficiency tests.
Between Wednesday and Friday, the stock dropped more than 40 percent in its worst three-day decline since it listed in 1988.
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