In Tokyo, the important Nikkei 225 index was down 2.7 percent at lunch local time, while the broader Topix index had fallen 3.5 percent.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng stood at minus 1.5 percent at the same time. The Shanghai and Shenzhen composite indices pointed to minus 0.2 percent and minus 1.1 percent, respectively.
In South Korea, the Kospi index was down 1.7 percent.
Values of around 2.5 trillion dollars were wiped out in stock trading on the American stock exchanges on Thursday, the day after Trump's tariff announcement, which came on Wednesday evening after the exchanges closed.
The Dow Jones industrial index fell 4 percent, the broad S&P 500 index 4.8 percent, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index a whole 6 percent.
This meant the worst single trading day for the Nasdaq composite index since March 2020 and for the Dow Jones industrial index since June the same year, according to CNBC.
