TOKYO: Tokyo shares were flat in early trade on Friday as investors remained wary about how eurozone leaders plan to tackle the region's debt crisis.
The Nikkei-225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange, which closed at its lowest level since March 2009 on Thursday, edged up 0.16 percent, or 12.66 points, at 8,177.84.
The leading index may struggle to find a clear direction Friday as European leaders appear to remain split on how to contain Europe's fiscal woes, said Yoshihiro Okumura, general manager at Chibagin Asset Management.
German, French and Italian leaders pledged Thursday to propose modifications to European Union treaties to further integrate economic policy, but they played down suggestions that the European Central Bank would have a greater crisis-busting role.
"It is difficult to reconcile the interests of individual nations," Okumura told Dow Jones Newswires.
"It will likely take a while to get that done. Markets can be destabilised at every major redemption of sovereign bonds," he said.
A failed German bond auction earlier this week shook confidence in the safehaven status of Europe's biggest economy.
Scandal-hit Olympus saw its shares soar 21.78 percent to 1,241 yen as the camera and medical equipment maker's ex-chief and two other directors implicated in a loss cover-up scandal formally resigned from its board.
The euro bought $1.3322 and 102.85 yen in early Asian trade, compared with $1.3327 and 102.87 in London late Thursday.
The dollar edged up to 77.24 yen from 77.11.
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