Japan stocks declined Thursday because of weak Asian markets and profit-taking by investors. Real estate and banking issues, which have been highly bought these days, were sold.

Steel shares continued rising for the fifth straight session as investors expected the manufacturers to agree to hike steel price.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average dropped 109.52 points, or 0.8%, to 14160.09. TOPIX was down 4.41 points to 1399.84. Among all the TSE first section issues, 681 increased and 923 decreased. The trading volume reached 2,423.37 million stocks or 2,420.6 billion yen. The Japanese currency is being traded in the level of latter half of 103 yen per a　U.S. dollar.

Traders said, It seems the Japanese market is overheated. But the upward trend will continue because probably investors will buy on the dips, according to Japanese financial newspapers.

Japan Nikkei 225