File photo: CGTN

Tokyo stocks closed lower on Wednesday as falls on Wall Street weighed on the market.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index lost 0.49 percent or 106.63 points to end at 21,778.61, while the broader Topix index was off 0.42 percent or 6.71 points at 1,596.29.

In New York, the Dow ended down 1.3 percent. The broad-based S&P 500 shed 1.2 percent, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index fell 1.1 percent.

"The Nikkei index slid after US stocks tumbled on on weak manufacturing data," Okasan Online Securities said in a note.

"But the losses (on Tokyo markets) were limited due to a breather in the yen's rise against the dollar," it said.

The dollar fetched 107.80 yen in Asian trade, against 107.69 in New York and 108.25 yen in Tokyo late Tuesday.

Kansai Electric (KEPCO) jumped 3.22 percent to 1,266 yen as the firm held a second press conference to explain the details of "gifts" executives had received from a local official.

Last week, KEPCO's president admitted that he and other executives received money and gifts worth around $3 million from a town hosting one of their nuclear plants.

Sony dropped 2.36 percent to 6,200 yen after its gaming unit slashed the price of the PlayStation Now cloud video game service.

Automakers were among losers, with Toyota losing 1.20 percent to 7,159 yen and Honda 1.76 percent to 2,818 yen.

China-linked shares were also lower, with industrial robot maker Fanuc falling 2.22 percent to 20,005 yen and electronic parts maker Rohm 1.06 percent to 8,370 yen.