TOKYO: Tokyo stocks fell 0.26 percent in directionless trade on Monday morning owing to an absence of fresh buying incentives.
The Nikkei 225 at the Tokyo Stock Exchange was down 25.36 points to 9,751.67 by the break, while the broader Topix index of all first-section issues shed 0.17 percent or 1.41 points to 836.41.
The Nikkei will likely stay sluggish and hover around Friday's closing level for the rest of the session, said Investrust CEO Hiroyuki Fukunaga.
Investors were watching the 10-day gathering of China's National People's Congress, which got under way in Beijing on Monday.
Premier Wen Jiabao outlined the government's priorities for 2012, setting a growth target of 7.5 percent for the year, which would be a further slowdown as the economy is buffeted by weak demand for exports in Europe and the United States.
The lower target weighed on Japan's steelmakers. JFE Holdings, which has large exposure to China, was down 2.87 percent at 1,658 yen, while Nippon Steel fell 1.30 percent to 227 yen.
NTT DoCoMo rose 1.22 percent to 141,000 yen in the morning, outperforming the broader indexes on expectations that Japan's top mobile carrier will continue to strengthen its overseas businesses.
The Nikkei business daily reported on Sunday that DoCoMo would join hands with major Spanish telecommunication firm Telefonica SA to work on technologies and services for smartphones.
Olympus, hit by a cover-up scandal, lost 3.61 percent to 1,281 yen on uncertainty over whether it will be able to find a business partner to bolster its finances, said a Japanese brokerage senior strategist.
The strategist added concerns over a potential delisting were rekindled by a weekend Nikkei report that prosecutors had decided to indict the camera maker itself for misstating securities reports along with former executives already arrested.
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