The benchmark October gold contract on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange finished down 5 yen per gram at 1,739 yen, a session trough. The day's high was 1,747 yen. Other months fell by two to six yen.
The soft yen, which hovered near a two-year low against the dollar, failed to support TOCOM gold.
"A weak yen just wasn't enough to lift today's market," a Tokyo analyst said.
The New York market's going through a correction and it's difficult to buy aggressively until that has been completed, he said.
In the currency market, the dollar continued to rally, buoyed by a widening yield advantage.
The dollar was fetching 117.85/117.90 yen, against 117.67/117.70 yen in late New York trade.
The United States currency hit a two-year peak of 118.38 on Monday. Bullion weakened during Asian trading hours, putting further pressure on TOCOM gold.
Spot gold was fetching $456.50/$457.00 an ounce at TOCOM's closing bell, compared with $459.10/$459.90 last quoted in New York.
US gold futures rose and settled near session highs on Monday on speculative buying, but thin trading interest and a robust dollar prevented a sharper recovery from last week's two-month low.
Benchmark December delivery gold climbed $2.50 to $460.40 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange's Comex division.
Total gold turnover on TOCOM was estimated at a moderate 47,931 lot, up slightly from Monday's 45,909 lots.
In other precious metals on TOCOM, the benchmark October platinum futures contract closed up 12 yen at 3,488 yen, after moving in a range of 3,469-3,494 yen.
It was the contract's highest level since September 1986. Spot platinum was at $930/$934, up from New York levels of $928/$932 an ounce.
TOCOM platinum's rise was attributed to technical factors, and the strength of sister metal palladium, which climbed to its highest level since June 2004.
The key TOCOM palladium contract climbed 14 yen to close at 870 yen per gram.