Japanese publisher share prices drop amid tariff uncertainty

Financial markets worldwide are reacting to last week’s announcement of tariffs by US President Donald Trump, and Japanese game publishers were among those seeing drops in share prices today.

Upon opening earlier today, Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 7%, itself following a 9% drop last week, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Publisher stocks are mirroring this trend. In Japan earlier today, Nintendo closed 7.85% down, Capcom closed 6.61% down, Square Enix closed 5.62% down, Bandai Namco closed 7.37% down, Konami closed 5.19% down and Sony closed 10.04% down.

This pattern was noted by Kantan Games’ Dr Serkan Toto earlier in the day.

In the US, NASDAQ-listed publishers Electronic Arts and Take-Two Interactive have each seen single-digit percentage drops in share price since April 1.

On the London Stock Exchange, shares in Everplay Group (owners of publisher Team17) and Frontier Developments have been similarly affected.

Britain’s FTSE 100 has dropped to its lowest level in nearly 14 months, according to Reuters.

In the US, last week was the worst for Wall Street since the start of the pandemic in 2020, with stocks off to a volatile start at open today too, according to The Independent.

Trump’s 10% ‘base’ tariffs on goods imported into the US went into effect on April 5, while the higher per-country ‘retaliatory’ tariffs are due to go into force on April 9.

The main consumer-facing result of the tariffs so far is the temporary delay of Switch 2 pre-orders in the US, which is manufactured in countries hit by the higher tariffs, like Vietnam and Cambodia.