TOKYO: Japanese shares ended higher on Monday after Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga won a landslide victory in a ruling party leadership election, paving the way for him to succeed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The benchmark Nikkei share average closed 0.74% higher at 23,579.48, while the broader Topix gained 0.93% to 1,651.91, hitting the highest level since Feb. 21.

Leading the gains, SoftBank Group jumped 8.96% to mark its biggest daily gain since March 25, after the company said it agreed to sell chip designer Arm to Nvidia Corp for as much as $40 billion in a deal set to reshape the semiconductor landscape.

Paper and pulp led the sectoral gainers on the main bourse, up 2.38%, with Pack Corp climbing 3.66% and Nippon Paper Industries rising 1.64%.

Telecommunication companies were hit after Suga said on Friday he wanted to cut cell phone charges by around 40%.

SoftBank Corp dropped 5.01%, while NTT Docomo and KDDI Corp dropped 2.73% and 3.05%, respectively.