A modestly positive open is expected for the Tokyo stock market on Friday. Traders get another positive lead from Wall Street, which saw its 2nd straight session of gains ahead of Friday's key employment report.
Japan stocks moved broadly higher for a second straight session of gains on Thursday.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 average gained 135.82 points or 1.52 percent to close at 9,062.84.
The TOPIX index of all shares traded in the Tokyo Stock Exchange First Section gained 8.02 points or 0.99 percent to finish at 819.42.
Trading volume was 1.581 billion shares.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners 1,193 to 342 with 132 unchanged.
Of the 33 industry sectors tracked by the TSE, just the pulp/paper and oil/coal products sectors finished lower.
Among the stocks of interest, auto maker Honda Motor added 1.9 percent, Nissan Motor was up 2.9 percent, Mitsubishi Motors was up 1.9 percent and Toyota Motor was down 0.3 percent.
Electronics maker Sony Corp rose 0.7 percent, Canon Inc was up 1.2 percent, TDK rose 2.5 percent and Panasonic Corp was up 0.4 percent.
Among the shippers, Nippon Yusen was up 0.9 percent, Mitsui OSK Lines was up 2.8 percent and Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha was up 1.0 percent.
Oil producer/explorer Inpex was up 1.3 percent.
In overseas trading, Wall Street added to its big gains of Wednesday with another strong performance on Thursday as traders await Friday's key employment report from the U.S. Labor Department.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 50.63 points or 0.49 percent at 10,320.10, the Nasdaq Composite index was up 23.17 points or 1.06 percent at 2,200.01 and the S & P 500 index was up 9.81 points or 0.91 percent at 1,090.10.
All of the other major Asia/Pacific region markets except Indonesia's closed higher on Thursday.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was up 245.09 points or 1.19 percent at 20,868.92.
China's Shanghai Composite index was up 32.89 points or 1.25 percent at 2,655.78.
In India, the BSE 30/SENSEX index rose 32.44 points or 0.18 percent to 20,868.92.
The Jakarta Composite index in Indonesia was down 13.17 points or 0.42 percent at 3,122.15.
South Korea's KOSPI/Seoul Composite index was up 11.04 points or 0.63 percent at 1,775.73.
The Taiwan Weighted Index was up 52.57 points or 0.69 percent at 7,720.82.
For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com