Tokyo shares rebounded from morning losses to end just over the line in positive territory Tuesday as gains on the Chinese market encouraged regional investors.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index rose 0.09 percent, or 20.73 points, at 22,219.73 while the broader Topix index dropped 0.40 percent, or 6.73 points, at 1,685.42.
The Tokyo market opened lower as the yen ticked up against the dollar after US President Donald Trump expressed displeasure in a media interview about the Federal Reserve's rate hike policy.
"Investors were wary of the higher-yen trend in the morning and sold Tokyo shares", Okasan Online Securities said in a note to clients.
"But once the Chinese market opened in positive territory, the Nikkei index steadily trimmed losses" and headed into positive territory in the afternoon session, the brokerage said.
The dollar bought 110.02 yen on Tuesday afternoon, up from 109.92 yen in the morning and against 110.10 yen in New York.
Many investors also took to the sidelines ahead of US-China trade talks, slated for Wednesday and Thursday, the first such meeting since the US and China began imposing tit-for-tat tariffs on tens of billions of dollars' worth of goods.
Telecom shares were among major losers of the day, after Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said in a speech that mobile fees could be lowered by as much as 40 percent.
Top carrier NTT DoCoMo fell 4.00 percent to 2,820 yen while SoftBank fell 1.63 percent to 9,821 yen. KDDI also plunged 5.22 percent to 2,953.5 yen.
Nissan edged up 0.24 percent to 1,042.5 yen, after a report that it was spending about $900 million to build a new factory in China.
The company confirmed some parts of the report in the influential Nikkei daily.
But it kept mum on other details, saying it was "continuing to explore the possibility of expanding production capacity in China".
Sony fell 0.47 percent to 5,972 yen, while Nintendo rose 0.90 percent to 37,000 yen.
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