With the euro hovering close to a two-week high against the yen in the 112.40 yen region, exporters were granted some relief with Sony Corp. rising 0.9 percent to 2,445 yen and TDK Corp. advancing 1.2 percent to 5,080 yen.
Canon Inc., was a notable gainer on Friday, adding 1 percent to 3,480 yen, following the Nikkei English newspaper announcing the firm's operating profit for the first half of the year may have almost tripled to about 182 billion yen (2.06 billion U.S. dollars) on better-than-anticipated sales of digital single-lens-reflex cameras and laser printers.
Financials dragged however with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., losing 0.5 percent to 426 yen and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc., sinking 2.2 percent 2,621 yen.
Mizuho Financial Group Inc., meanwhile, reversed the downward trend as the bank announced plans to raise as much as 857.6 billion yen (9.67 billion U.S. dollars) to meet stricter capital regulations through new share issuance.
One asset manager pointed out that as the deadline for Mizuho's share sale is next week, investors are selling other financial issues to buy into Mizuho's proposition.
The biggest drag on the Nikkei Friday however was the mining sector led by Inpex Corp. plunging 12.8 percent to 415,000 yen, after the oil explorer announced a share offering Thursday to finance a 20 billion U.S. dollar gas project in northern Australia.
This would mark the largest share issuance by a non-financial firm this year and has caused concerns over share value dilution.
On the last trading day of the week some 1.66 billion shares changed hands on the Tokyo exchange's First section, up from Thursday's volume of 1.64 billion shares, with advancing issues outnumbering declining ones by 818 to 683.
