Japanese shares had another bad spell on Wednesday, with markets continuing yesterday’s losses and falling overall by 7 percent over the last two days.

Tokyo’s Nikkei dropped 2.3 percent at close, a lesser fall than Tuesday’s 5.4 percent – their worst trading day of the year so far. These latest falls mean that Japan has entered a bear market, with markets losing 20 percent for their value over the past nine months.

The volatility has been caused by a strengthening of the yen, which is likely to have a negative impact on exports. Japan’s economy has faced troubles recently, despite the government’s attempts to calm the waters with the introduction of negative interest rates. Uncertainty has also hit government bonds, with the yield on Japanese ten year bonds dropping into negative territory for the first time.