Tokyo: Tokyo stocks opened higher on Friday as the yen hovered around eight-month lows on the dollar, brightening the outlook for exporters.
Forex was a key trading cue with US markets closed Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday and as investors largely shrugged off weak Japanese inflation data.
"Considering the pace of the yen's slide, the rise in local equities hasn't been that fast," said Shinichi Yamamoto, a senior strategist at Okasan Securities.
"There is wariness over reaching new highs, mixed with the move toward pricing in US policy expectations, but the momentum is strong with less sense of an overheat," he told Bloomberg News.
The bellwether Nikkei 225 index gained 0.39 percent, or 71.57 points, to 18,404.98 in early trading, while the Topix index of all first-section issues was up 0.42 percent, or 6.11 points, at 1,466.07.
In forex markets, the dollar was trading at its highest level since March against the yen, buying 113.76 yen against 113.20 yen in Europe Thursday afternoon.
The greenback has been rallying on expectations of higher interest rates under a pro-spending administration of Donald Trump.
Markets appeared to brush off government data that showed Japan's consumer prices fell for the eighth consecutive month in October, the longest string of declines since a losing streak seen in 2009-2011.
In Tokyo stocks trading, Toyota rose 2.64 percent to 6,762 yen and Nissan jumped 3.61 percent to 1,089.5 yen.
Hitachi rose 1.15 percent to 622.3 yen and Toshiba gained 1.08 percent to 410.6 yen.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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