Tokyo stocks ended sharply down Friday, with the Nikkei closing at a one-month low, following sell-offs in international markets overnight on fears over the adverse global economic impact of monetary tightening by U.S. and European central banks.

The benchmark Nikkei index lost 1,861.29 points in the five trading sessions through Friday, recording its largest weekly decline since March 9-13, 2020, when stocks plummeted in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.

The yen briefly plummeted against the U.S. dollar immediately after the Bank of Japan said it had decided to keep its ultraeasy monetary policy intact at its policy meeting, drawing a sharp contrast with global counterparts amid surging inflation.

The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average ended down 468.20 points, or 1.77 percent, from Thursday at 25,963.00, its lowest closing level since May 12. The broader Topix index finished 31.91 points, or 1.71 percent, lower at 1,835.90.

On the top-tier Prime Market, decliners were led by precision instrument, iron and steel, and transportation equipment issues.

The foreign exchange market was volatile, with the dollar trading in the lower 134 yen zone for most of the afternoon after climbing by around 1 yen from the lower 133 yen zone following the BOJ policy meeting.

At 5 p.m., the dollar fetched 134.27-31 yen compared with 132.09-19 yen in New York and 134.22-24 yen in Tokyo at 5 p.m. Thursday.

The euro was quoted at $1.0517-0519 and 141.23-27 yen against $1.0548-0558 and 139.34-44 yen in New York and $1.0396-0398 and 139.54-58 yen in Tokyo late Thursday afternoon.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Japanese government bond fell from 0.255 percent struck at Thursday's evening session to 0.220 percent. In the morning, it briefly hit 0.265 percent, its highest level since January 2016 and above the BOJ's cap of around 0.25 percent, as investors shed the debt in anticipation of changes to the central bank's policy. Bond yields move inversely to prices.

The Nikkei briefly tumbled 710 points, or 2.68 percent, in the morning a day after the Bank of England and Swiss National Bank announced interest rate increases in response to high inflation.

The benchmark trimmed some losses in the afternoon, helped by the weakening yen and higher U.S. stock futures, brokers said.

But investors are wary about the possible negative effects of rate hikes, which lead to higher borrowing costs for companies and households, after the latest rate hike announcements followed the U.S. Federal Reserve's decision Wednesday to raise its key interest rate by 0.75 percentage point, its largest increase since 1994.

"Market participants are becoming more worried about recession rather than an economic slowdown caused by aggressive monetary tightening," said Shingo Ide, chief equity strategist at the NLI Research Institute.

"The decision to raise rates by Switzerland's central bank and the BOE came as a surprise, given that European economies have been undermined by the Ukraine crisis," he said. "High inflation has become a global problem for countries to tackle."

The BOJ, on the other hand, maintained its ultraeasy monetary policy at its two-day policy meeting through Friday, and reaffirmed its commitment to unlimited purchases of 10-year government bonds at a fixed rate of 0.25 percent every business day in principle.

Among Prime Market issues, declining issues outnumbered advancers 1,447 to 351, while 40 ended unchanged.

The Nikkei was weighed down by the fall of heavyweight Tokyo Electron that dived 2,550 yen, or 5.0 percent, to 48,040 yen, tracking declines in U.S. counterparts as the tech-heavy Nasdaq index plunged about 4 percent overnight.

Toyota Motor lost 77.0 yen, or 3.6 percent, to 2,063.0 yen, after the carmaker said Thursday it had slashed its global output plan for June due to difficulty in procuring parts and a COVID-19 outbreak at one of its suppliers.

Trading volume on the Prime Market rose to 1,869.65 million shares from Thursday's 1,130.69 million.

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