The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average finished 287.7 points, or 1.0 percent, lower from Thursday at 28,437.77.
The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange ended down 15.31 points, or 0.77 percent, at 1,975.48.
Trading volume on the main section increased to 1,114.09 million shares from Thursday's 984.72 million shares.
Tracking overnight losses in the U.S. technology-heavy Nasdaq index, Tokyo stocks opened low from the outset but quickly trimmed losses with the Topix index briefly rising to positive territory. However, both indexes fell later and extended declines in the afternoon.
Seiichi Suzuki, chief equity market analyst at the Tokai Tokyo Research Institute, said that market participants refrained from making bold moves since they became cautious ahead of key events in the United States.
"Compared with last week when the stock market made big moves, today was very slow and investors did not trade actively ahead of the events," he said.
The U.S. government will release Friday the consumer price index for November, and the Federal Reserve will hold a two-day policy meeting next week.
At the same time, the Bank of Japan will release its December Tankan business sentiment survey on Monday.
By the close of play, precision instruments, service, and rubber product sectors led the downward trend. Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones 1,607 to 481 on the First Section, while 95 finished unchanged.
Among technology companies, Tokyo Electron ended down 1.3 percent, while Advantest closed 1.7 percent lower.
Meanwhile, air and land transportation firms took a hit by concerns over another surge of the COVID-19 in Japan, as infections have increased in other countries with high vaccination rates.
ANA Holdings fell 0.8 percent, and Japan Airlines dropped 2.1 percent.
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