Japanese stocks dropped on Tuesday afternoon, with Toshiba Corp's diving after it delayed its earnings release, including details of a multibillion dollar charge related to cost overruns at its U.S. nuclear arm.

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The Nikkei share average dropped 0.5 percent at 19,367.96 in early afternoon trade.

Toshiba's stock nosedived more than 9 percent in early afternoon after it announced during the midday market recess that it would delay its earnings release, which was originally scheduled for 0300 GMT.

"The delay shows that the company is in a mess," said Makoto Kikuchi, chief executive of Myojo Asset Management. "We can assume that the company is not delaying its earnings release for good news. The market speculates that Toshiba will be releasing figures worse than what is being reported already."

The broader Topix dropped 0.4 percent to 1,548.00 and the JPX-Nikkei Index 400 fell 0.5 percent to 13,882.68.

(Reporting by Ayai Tomisawa; Editing by Sam Holmes)

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