The Nikkei 225 plunged 5.96% to close at 57,435 on Friday, taking weekly losses beyond 9% and marking its worst weekly performance since the Covid-driven selloff in March 2020. The index fell to its lowest level since April and remained more than 20% below its June peak, placing it in technical bear-market territory. Technology stocks led the decline after a sweeping Democratic victory in the U.S. midterm elections raised concerns about tighter AI regulation and slower data-center expansion. Japanese AI-related shares were hit hard, with Kioxia Holdings down 36.8%, Taiyo Yuden losing 22%, SoftBank Group falling 20.8%, Advantest declining 19.6% and Tokyo Electron dropping 13.2% over the week. Japan's nominal wages rose at their fastest pace in nearly three decades, strengthening expectations of another Bank of Japan interest-rate increase in December. The regional selloff also sent South Korea's KOSPI down 6.02% to 5,059.65, while the KOSDAQ fell 5%; SK Hynix dropped more than 10% and Samsung Electronics declined 6.35%. Seoul convened an emergency market-conditions meeting after the KOSPI briefly fell more than 8% below 5,000 and triggered its 11th circuit breaker of the year. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell more than 12% and the Nasdaq Composite lost 5.5%, intensifying concerns over AI infrastructure spending, technology valuations, profit-taking and institutional deleveraging.