* Nikkei down 1.4 percent after Tues rally
* Focus on economic damage, nuclear progress
* JGB futures higher; dollar below 81 yen
By Antoni Slodkowski and Natsuko Waki
TOKYO, March 23 (Reuters) - Japanese shares fell on Wednesday after the previous day's four-percent rally, while government bond futures ticked higher as investors paused to assess the economic damage from this month's earthquake and tsunami.
Investors focused on the cost of the disaster that is set to exceed the 10 trillion yen from the Kobe earthquake in 1995, with Tokyo shares failing to extend Tuesday's rally, led by foreigners who were encouraged by progress in containing radiation leaks at a nuclear plant.
The Nikkei newspaper reported the government expects total damage from the quake that hit northeast Japan to reach 15-25 trillion yen ($185-310 billion).
Investors are also monitoring the impact on production from the quake. Sony said on Tuesday it was cutting output at five more plants and Toyota Motor said it was delaying restarting assembly lines.
"The market is still extremely volatile, so I wouldn't be surprised if the market loses much more today," said Norihiro Fujito, senior investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities.
He added that a combination of concerns on the impact of the tsunami and earthquake, cuts in electricity supply and rising oil prices were set to pressure Japan stocks.
The Nikkei average fell 1.4 percent to 9,471.79 , slipping below a key support level at 9,500. The broader TOPIX index lost 1 percent to 859.80.
Nikkei futures traded in Osaka dropped 1.4 percent at 9,390 . Benchmark Japanese government 10-year bond futures rose 0.2 point to 139.61.
The dollar fell around 0.15 percent to 80.93 yen , off last week's peak of 82.00 yen set after the world's major central banks intervened to stem export-damaging strength in the Japanese currency.
Data from the Bank of Japan showed on Tuesday the Group of Seven countries may have sold a total of around 530 billion yen on Friday, far smaller than market talk. (Additional reporting by Akiko Takeda; Writing by Natsuko Waki; Editing by Joseph Radford)