Japanese stocks rose slightly in choppy trade on Tuesday after the previous day's spectacular rebound as oil prices cleared a one-week high.
The Nikkei share average edged up 0.2 per cent to close at 16,054.43.
More than half of its gains came from telecoms conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp, which soared 15.9 per cent after announcing it would buy back as much as 14.2 per cent of its own shares.
The broader Topix rose 0.4 per cent to end the day at 1,297.01 with 19 of its 33 subindexes in positive territory.
The JPX-Nikkei Index 400 gained 0.4 per cent to 11,721.81.