Japan's Nikkei index rebounds 0.94pc at opening
The Nikkei index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange rose 84.41 points to 9,066.35 in the first minutes of trading.
The rebound came after US stocks staged a dramatic comeback overnight following a sharp selloff on the previous day.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished with a 3.94 percent gain, adding 422.84 points to close at 11,142.78.
The broader S&P 500 rebounded 4.63 percent, while the Nasdaq gained 4.69 percent.
The rise in Tokyo might be capped, however, by a still-uncertain outlook on the European debt situation and the health of the US economy, said Yutaka Miura, senior technical analyst at Mizuho Securities.
"The high volatility in US and European stocks are likely to continue for some time until fundamental issues are addressed," he told Dow Jones Newswires.
US stocks may easily sway one way or the other based on retail sales numbers due out later in the global day, he said, just as the better-than-expected jobless claims data boosted Wall Street overnight.
In the currency market, the dollar stayed under pressure on the fears of US and global slowdown, amid deep worries over the eurozone debt crisis.
The dollar stood at 76.88 yen, flat from New York trade on Thursday, hovering just above the record low of 76.25 yen.
The euro stood at $1.4200 and 109.15 yen, mixed from $1.4238 and 109.29 yen in New York.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011