Tokyo - Japanese Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa on Tuesday announced a series of government plans to stabilize the financial markets, including the use of public money to help regional banks.

Japan's initiatives also include freezing sales of government-held stocks, extending a safety net for life insurance companies and relaxing buybacks for companies of their own shares.

Tokyo - Never before has the Japanese economy been buffeted so severely by financial sources outside the country.

Foreign investors fled the world's second largest economy on Friday in panic, triggering the biggest daily losses percentage-wise since the Black Monday crash in October 1987.

The technology-heavy benchmark Nikkei 225 index nosedived 881.06 points, or 9.62 per cent, closing at 8,276.43, the lowest in more than five years.

"Investor sentiment froze into pure horror," one trader said.

Tokyo - Stocks in Tokyo ended Friday trading lower, with the benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average plunging below the psychologically significant mark of 9,000 points for the first time in more than five years.

The key Nikkei index plunged 881.06 points, or 9.62 per cent, to close at 8,276.43.

The broader Topix index of all first-section issues also dropped 64.25 points, or 7.09 per cent, to 840.86.

For the week, Nikkei fell 24.33 per cent, and the Topix also declined almost 20 per cent.

Tokyo - Yamato Life Insurance Co became the first Japanese financial firm Friday to fail due to losses linked to the global financial crisis, a media report said.

The medium-sized firm filed for bankruptcy protection Friday in Tokyo, reported Kyodo news agency.

The insurance firm incurred debts of 269.5 billion yen (2.68 billion dollars) from losses from investments in subprime mortgages-related bonds and other securities as their prices plunged amid the US financial crisis, the officials said.