The Nikkei Average fell again on 22 October, briefly declining to the 61,000 level. Concerns over tighter AI regulation have been cited as a factor behind the selling. Market participants say the PHP vulnerability issue has prompted expectations that AI regulation will become stricter.
The Nikkei Average briefly fell to the 61,000 level during trading, reaching a 3-month low. Combined with the previous day's decline, this represented a substantial drop. The market is continuing to fall.
The market had also recorded a decline of more than 1,700 points on the previous day, 22 October, bringing the decline from the 21 October close to more than 3,000 points over the 2 days. Market sentiment has turned bearish.
The selling of AI and semiconductor stocks in the US market spread to the Tokyo market, with some observers saying it helped drive the Nikkei Average lower. Experts have pointed to the possibility that movements in overseas markets affected the domestic market.
Market participants say that expectations that AI regulation will be tightened, triggered by issues including vulnerabilities in the PHP programming language, have contributed to the selling by raising concerns that AI development could be hampered.