Japanese Stocks Trim Declines as G-7 Agrees to Meet on Economy

Japanese equities pared declines as Group of Seven finance ministers agreed to meet tomorrow to discuss financial markets and the country’s economy after an earthquake and nuclear accident triggered steep declines in stocks.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average closed more than 730 points higher than a two-year intraday low on March 15 after it pared a 5 percent loss today. Toyota Motor Corp., which gets 30 percent of revenue in North America, trimmed its loss to 2.7 percent from 5.7 percent as the yen traded below an overnight post-World War II record. Tokyo Electric Power Co., owner of the stricken Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power station, trimmed its decline from 22 percent to 13 percent after saying more than 300 people are working on its damaged reactors and that a new cooling-system power source may be installed as early as this afternoon.