TOKYO, JAPAN - Japanese stocks ended 2.31 percent lower on Monday after fresh doubts about the sustainability of a US economic recovery sent stocks plunging on Wall Street.

The benchmark Nikkei-225 index dropped 231.71 points to 9,802.95. The broader Topix index of all first-section shares sank 14.13 points, or 1.58 percent, to 880.54.

The market's downbeat mood was compounded by commercial lender CIT Group filing Sunday for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection - one of largest in US corporate history, dealers said.

Eiji Kinouchi, chief technical analyst at Daiwa Securities, told Dow Jones Newswires that signs indicating a recovery in the US economy will have a big impact on stocks in the wake of CIT Group's bankruptcy filing.

Exporters weighed on the Tokyo market, reflecting investors' disappointment with the slower-than-expected recovery of the US economy, though shares of Japanese consumer lenders surged.

Nissan Motor dropped 3.27 percent to 650 yen and Mazda fell 3.32 percent to 204.

Nippon Steel lost 3.68 percent to 340, while Kawasaki Heavy Industries sank 3.90 percent to 222.

Japan Airlines plunged 4.27 percent to 112 and All Nippon Airways slid 4.7 percent to 241 as it cut its full fiscal year earnings outlook.

But consumer finance shares jumped on investor hopes that Japan's government may water down or freeze plans for tighter regulation on the beleaguered industry, with Aiful Corp surging 17.29 percent to 156.