Japan's business community on Thursday generally downplayed the Nikkei Stock Average's precipitous plunge, saying the dive is merely a reaction to irrational buying of high-tech shares in recent months.
"The fundamentals of the Japanese economy are strong, so I am not concerned about the plunge very much," said Koichi Mizuguchi, vice chairman of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives (Keizai Doyukai).
The plunge stemmed from a sudden flight from Japanese shares by foreign investors and other major market players who were driving forces behind the market's sharp recovery until recently, Mizuguchi said.