Japan's markets traded sharply lower on Friday, following global markets, and as a stronger yen against the dollar hurt the country's big exporters.
In early trade, the benchmark Nikkei 225 fell as much as 5.4%.
By the close, it had recovered slightly, but was still down 4.85% to 14,952.61 points.
That was below the psychologically important level of 15,000 points and its lowest close since October 2014.
Friday's losses end what has been a turbulent week of trade for Japan.
Big exporters in Japan were hurt on Friday as the dollar fell to a 15-month low against the yen.
A stronger yen against the dollar hurts Japan's exporters, as it makes their products more expensive to purchase overseas.
