Tokyo stocks rose for a fourth consecutive session Friday, allowing the Nikkei index to end the year at a 21-month high as expectations for aggressive monetary easing by new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe continued to weaken the yen.
The 225-issue benchmark average gained 72.20 points, or 0.70 percent, to close at 10,395.18, its highest since March 10, 2011, the day before the Great East Japan Earthquake struck off the coast of Tohoku.
The Nikkei was up 23 percent from the end of 2011, posting its first year-on-year rise in three years and its largest annual percentage gain since 2005, when it grew by 40 percent.