After nose-diving 1,143 points, or 7.3 percent, Thursday, the Nikkei 225 stock average rebounded more than 2.6 percent in morning trading Friday as investors were soothed by the dollar's uptick and limited falls on Wall Street following sound U.S. economic gauges.
The key index ended the morning session up 383.92 points, or 2.65 percent compared to Thursday, at 14,867.90, after briefly climbing more than 3.5 percent to 15,007.50.
The broader Topix index of all first section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange rose 29.90 points, or 2.52 percent, to end the morning session at 1,218.24.
"Yesterday (Thursday) was crazy," said Masaru Hamasaki, a strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management Co., which oversees the equivalent of $100 billion. "But the market hasn't turned bearish. There's no reason for panic."
Utilities jumped 6.4 percent, the most among the Topix's 33 industry groups, after plunging 8.8 percent the day before. Insurers, brokerages and consumer lenders climbed at least 4 percent after leading declines Thursday. Shinsei Bank Ltd. spiked 6.5 percent.
The Nikkei advanced 2.6 percent to 14,853.71, with all but 14 stocks climbing. The gauge lost 7.3 percent of its value Thursday, while a plunge in futures triggered a halt in Osaka-traded contracts. The Nikkei Volatility Index fell 13 percent Friday morning after jumping 58 percent Thursday.
Japanese stocks, the best performing among the 24 largest markets worldwide, plunged in record volume after Japanese government bond yields rose to the highest levels in a year and Chinese manufacturing data missed analysts' estimates. The Topix trades at around 1.3 times its book value, compared with 2.4 for the broad-based Standard & Poor's 500 index in the United States and 1.7 for the Stoxx Europe 600 Index.