Tokyo stocks opened lower on Thursday with falls on Wall Street partly offset by a cheaper yen against the dollar.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 0.46 percent or 105.59 points at 23,005.02 in early trade, while the broader Topix index slipped 0.46 percent or 7.50 points to 1,606.23.
"The Japanese market seems to continue trading without a sense of direction, with a cheaper yen against the dollar is working as a buffer against falls on Wall Street," Okasan Online Securities said in a commentary.
The dollar fetched 106.11 yen in early Asian trade, against 106.12 yen in New York and 105.51 yen late Wednesday.
Wall Street stocks retreated from records on profit-taking despite some strong earnings from retailers and Apple hitting a historic landmark as it became the first US company worth $2 trillion.
In Tokyo, Nissan was down 0.33 percent at 419.4 yen after reports said the carmaker has been ordered to pay several hundreds of millions of yen in back taxes in connection with misuse of funds by the firm's former CEO Carlos Ghosn.
Its bigger rival Toyota was down 0.48 percent at 7,160 yen.
Other major shares were lower, with telecom and investment giant SoftBank Group losing 1.86 percent to 6,278 yen and Uniqlo casual wear operator Fast Retailing trading down 0.22 percent at 61,110 yen.
On Wall Street, the Dow ended down 0.3 percent at 27,692.88.
