Japanese Market Sharply Lower TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - Japanese stock market is sharply lower on Monday, extending the losses of the previous three sessions, with the Nikkei 225 losing more than 500 points to slip below the 27,500 level, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street on Friday. Traders also continue to be spooked amid the surge in the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus variants as even some Tokyo Olympics participants have tested positive. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is down 507.72 points or 1.81 percent at the day's low of 27,495.36. Japanese shares ended significantly lower on Friday. Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is losing more than 2 percent and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is down more than 1 percent. Among automakers, Honda is losing more than 2 percent and Toyota is down more than 1 percent.