The balance of shares bought on credit last week turned lower for the first time in seven weeks.
The combined balance of long margin positions on the Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya stock exchanges stood at 1.82 trillion yen at the end of the week, down 51.23 billion yen from a week earlier, according to a weekly industry report.
In terms of volume, the balance fell 70.09 million shares to 2.9 billion shares.
The Tokyo stock market remained in a corrective phase, prompting individual investors to unwind their long-margin positions.
The balance of shares sold short, however, rose 4.42 billion yen to 925.19 billion yen, gaining for the second straight week.
By volume, the balance of short selling rose 20.85 million shares to 1.06 billion shares.
An increasing number of individual investors were counting on a further fall in share prices.