Tokyo stocks closed flat on Thursday, with traders taking Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's widely expected victory in the party leadership election in their stride.
The Nikkei 225 index closed up just 0.01% at 23 674.93, while the broader Topix index ended up 0.11% at 1 787.60.
The Nikkei index slipped briefly into negative territory after Abe's comfortable victory was announced because there were "no fresh clues for trade" during the afternoon session, Yoshihiro Ito, chief strategist at Okasan Online Securities, said in a commentary.
But investors in general were bullish, looking beyond the latest tit-for-tat tariffs by China and the United States, analysts said.
The dollar was quoted at ¥112.15 in late Asian trade, slightly lower than ¥112.26 in New York and ¥112.32 in Tokyo on Wednesday, but was higher than the ¥111 levels seen earlier this week.
Some blue-chip exporters closed higher, with Honda gaining 1.03% to ¥3 419 and Nissan up 0.36% to ¥1 090.5.
Game giant Nintendo jumped 4.80% to ¥41 920 on news about the release of new titles for its Nintendo Switch console.
Banks were also higher, with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial up 1.62% at ¥714.1 and its rival Sumitomo Mitsui Financial ending up 1.43% at ¥4 603.
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