In Tokyo the Nikkei 225 was up 0.88 percent Thursday to 16,153.82, while the Topix index added 0.69 percent to 1,568.23 and the Mothers market gained a bare 0.03 percent to 716.29.
Volume was low, with only around 1.52 billion shares trading hands during the session.
Traders were up on higher oil prices.
Mitsubishi Corp (TYO: 8058; OTC: MSBHY) was up 3.7 percent to ¥3,080, while Mitsui & Company (TYO: 8031) was 1.4 percent higher to ¥2,260 on reports that it has won a contract in conjunction with a South Korean engineering and construction group to build a diesel processing plant in Egypt.
Also higher on higher oil prices was refiner Nippon Oil (TYO: 5001), which added 4.3 percent to ¥937.
Electronics-related companies were also higher after the yen weakened.
Sony (TYO: 6758; NYSE: SNE) gained 1.2 percent to ¥5,290, while rival game-console maker Nintendo (TYO: 7974; NAS: NTDOY; FWB: NTO) was up 2.5 percent to ¥53,300 in Osaka.
Retailers were down on the session after new data revealed that retail sales were down by 2.2 percent in July against an expected drop of only 0.8 percent.
Mitsukoshi Ltd (TYO: 2779) was 2.4 percent lower to ¥521, while clothing retailer Fast Retailing fell 3.1 percent to ¥6,670.