Japan's Nikkei average fell 1.5% to post its fifth straight day of losses on Monday, with a weak US jobs report raising fresh concerns over recovery in the world's largest economy and as a stronger yen weighed on exporters.
The Nikkei has dropped 5.3% since April 2 , marking its longest losing streak since late November.
"We are already in the 9,500s now (on the Nikkei). We will see if that 9,500 (level) provides support. If not, our technical analyst is looking for the 9,300 handle (for support)," said Naomi Fink, Japan equity strategist at Jefferies.
"It's an interim correction. We went, perhaps, a little too far, too fast."
The benchmark Nikkei ended down 142.19 points at 9,546.26, its lowest closing level since February 21. S trategists said the benchmark's 13-week moving average, near 9,509, as well the 50% retracement of its fall from February to November last year, near 9,508, acted as support.
Last Friday's US non-farm payroll data disappointed investors, with the latest data showing 120,000 jobs added in March, worse than the forecast gain of 203,000 jobs. The unemployment rate dipped to 8.2% from February's 8.3%.
Despite the five-day losing streak, some strategists said the market correction was unlikely to last.
"There continue to be high expectations for Japan's corporate earnings recovery based on current forex levels, so I don't think there is reason to continue the sell-off for much longer," said Hiroyuki Fukunaga, CEO of Investrust.
Data from Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S pointed to an improved earnings outlook for the Topix, with its earnings momentum - analysts' upgrades minus downgrades as a total percentage - rising to 3.5% in March from minus 6.6% in February.
"We're going to see the first of the US corporate results this week, so if we see strong numbers from the likes of Alcoa, I think that will cancel out the negative surprise from the US jobs report," Fukunaga said.
US aluminum giant Alcoa Inc will kick start the Wall Street earnings season after the bell on Tuesday, followed by financial heavy weights JP Morgan Chase & Co and Wells Fargo & Co later this week.
In Tokyo, exporters and financials came under pressure after they led the Nikkei rally in January to March, when the index gained more than 19% to log its best first-quarter performance in 24 years.
Honda Motor Co lost 2.4%, Nissan Motor Co fell 3.4% and TDK Corp declined 1.7%, while Japan's top investment bank Nomura Holdings dropped 2%.
Sony Corp bucked the overall trend to climb 0.6% after a report said the company would cut about 6% of its global workforce as early as year-end to turn around its business.
Car-parts maker Press Kogyo Co sagged 4.6% after Deutsche Bank downgraded it to "hold" from "buy", saying near-term growth prospects have already been priced in.
The broader Topix dropped 1.5% to 813.69.
Trading volume on the main board was thin, with 1.6 billion shares changing hands, its lowest daily volume since January 16.
Not-So-Maniac Monday
Trading was particularly light on Monday, with stock markets in Australia, Hong Kong and the UK closed for Easter Monday.
Investors also avoided risk ahead of the Bank of Japan's two-day policy meeting ending on Tuesday.
The BOJ is expected to refrain from easing monetary policy, holding fire until a more thorough assessment of the economy two weeks later which may show further action is needed to nudge inflation up towards its 1% target. The central bank will hold another meeting on April 27.
Stock valuations on the Nikkei at the Friday close imply an earnings-per-share compound annual growth rate of 0.5% for the index as a whole over the next five years, data from Thomson Reuters StarMine showed.
That means the market is pricing the index as if EPS growth will be 0.5% every year over the five-year period, on a compound basis. That is down from 1.5% in mid-March, but up from minus 0.8% in January.
Implied five-year EPS CAGR for the S&P 500 is 4.0%.
However, the Nikkei offers a dividend yield of 2.4%, more than the S&P 500's 2%, StarMine data showed.