Tokyo stocks fell Thursday on profit-taking and as automakers were dented by a strong yen, overshadowing another record close on Wall Street. New York's main indexes pressed on with their surge Wednesday after figures showed US inflation hit a four-year high in January, fuelling bets on an interest rate hike soon.
US equities - which supply a strong lead for the Japanese market - have soared since Donald Trump last week vowed to release details of his promised tax cut plan within two to three weeks.
But US stocks "could plunge once US President Trump announces a tax cut plan, unless (there is) a significant surprise", warned Mitsushige Akino, a fund manager at Ichiyoshi Asset Management.
Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei 225 was down on profit-taking as it approached the "psychologically important" 19,500 level, he told Bloomberg News.
The index fell 0.47 percent, or 90.45 points, to end the day at 19,347.53, while the Topix index of all first-section issues slipped 0.17 percent, or 2.62 points, to 1,551.07.
The dollar weakened to 113.85 yen, from 114.43 yen Wednesday in Asia.
A pick-up in the yen is bad news for Japan's exporters as it makes them less competitive overseas and shrinks the value of repatriated profits.
Automakers were among the losers, with Toyota falling 0.52 percent to 6,457 yen and Nissan slipping 0.31 percent to 1,123.5 yen. Honda fell 0.60 percent to 3,609 yen.
ANA Holdings, parent company of All Nippon Airways, fell 1.27 percent to 324.5 yen after saying earlier it would make an important announcement. As markets closed, the company said it had appointed a new president from within its ranks.
Toshiba declined 3.33 percent to 202.7 yen, extending two days of heavy losses as fears mount over a sea of red ink at its US nuclear power business.
The firm on Tuesday warned of a $6.2 billion writedown in the business owing to ballooning costs and announced a probe into possible accounting wrongdoing by the unit's senior executives.
Japan's leading Nikkei business daily has said Toshiba is working to negotiate new schedules for two long-delayed nuclear projects in the US, seeking to set more achievable completion timelines and avoid haemorrhaging additional funds.