The Nikkei 225 Index fell 1.7% to below 63,000 on Monday, marking a six-week low, as it tracked declines in US stock futures amid mounting concerns over the safety of artificial intelligence development. On Saturday, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei urged AI companies to slow the rollout of their most advanced models due to safety risks, while also pledging to implement additional safeguards at his firm.
Sentiment was further pressured by a sharp rise in oil prices after Saudi Arabia shut down the critical East–West pipeline, a key alternative route to the Strait of Hormuz. The jump in energy costs reinforced expectations of tighter monetary policy, with both the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan widely expected to raise interest rates this week.
Technology and AI-related stocks led the selloff. Notable decliners included Kioxia Holdings (-8.6%), SoftBank Group (-12%), Advantest (-4.5%), Taiyo Yuden (-8.3%) and Tokyo Electron (-2.6%), all posting steep losses.
