Olympic worries and depleted policy options stifle Japan stocks

Foreign investors turn nervous on slow government response to virus

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The 2020 Summer Olympics were expected to stimulate the Japanese economy, but now the coronavirus outbreak has raised anxiety about their fate. © Reuters

KOHEI ONISHI, Nikkei staff writer

TOKYO -- As equities markets struggle around the world with the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, Japanese stocks face some special challenges: a central bank that has almost exhausted its policy options and the real, if slim, possibility that the much-anticipated Tokyo Olympics will be canceled.

The Nikkei Stock Average slid 1.2% on Tuesday to end the day at 21,082, even as benchmark indexes in China, South Korea and Indonesia rose.

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