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Tokyo - Tokyo shares slipped on Thursday morning in see-saw trading as bargain-buying after the previous two days' sharp drop was offset by a strong yen.
The Nikkei index rallied last week on hopes for central bank stimulus to negate the effects of Britain's EU exit vote, but it tumbled more two percent on Tuesday and on Wednesday as uncertainty over the future set in.
"There are concerns over a global economic slowdown," Keita Kubota, an investment manager at Aberdeen Investment Management, told Bloomberg News.
"When asset prices start falling, you can't avoid economic expansion reversing."
By the break, the benchmark Nikkei 225 index slipped 35.62 points, to 15 343.37, while the Topix index of all first-section shares was 2.96 points, lower at 1 231.24.
On currency markets, the lingering fear of risk pushed investors into the yen, which is seen as a safe haven in times of uncertainty, hurting Japan's exporters.
On Thursday, the dollar bought ¥100.93 down from ¥101.31 late in New York.
The yen's rise overshadowed gains from bargain-buying.
Mobile giant SoftBank fell 1.40% to ¥5 534 and rival NTT Docomo lost 1.30% to ¥2 846.
Energy explorer Inpex fell 1.21% to ¥755.4 and refiner JX Holdings lost 0.72% to ¥382.4.
But Toyota rose 0.67% to ¥5 098, a Nikkei business report said it planned to slash 800 jobs from its payroll in Thailand - about 5 percent of the total workforce - because of sluggish new-car sales in the country.
Toyota's rivals also gained, with Nissan up 0.83% at ¥932.2 and Honda tacking on 1.07% to ¥2 492.
