Tokyo stocks jumped more than two percent to a 30-year high on Tuesday on hopes of an economic recovery after signing a major U.S. stimulus package.
The Nikkei 225 index above 2.66 percent, or 714.12 points, finished at 27,568.15, while the broader Topix index rose 1.74 percent, or 31.14 points, to 1,819.18.
It came after US President Donald Trump signed a $ 900-billion incentive bill late Sunday, halting government closures, providing extra payments to unemployed workers and expanding eviction moratorium by month.
In the U.S., all three major records ended at high-term levels, with the Dow Jones industrial average up 0.7 percent at 30,403.97.
The wide S&P 500 gained 0.9 percent to 3,735.36, while the Nasdaq Composite-tech index advanced 0.7 percent to 12,899.42.
“In the United States, although the virus is spreading and there are concerns about new strains, there is hope for economic recovery thanks to coronavirus vaccines,” said market expert Yoshihiro Ito of Okasan Online Securities.
“The Nikkei index continued to grow in the afternoon session and hit a 30-year high,” he said. The index reached this level in August 1990.
After the discovery of several cases of the new COVID-19 variant, of which experts are more alarmed, Japan stopped all new foreigners arriving from abroad until the end of January.
The number of new infections in Japan is on the rise and Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has urged people to avoid gatherings, saying “the virus will not take a holiday”.
The dollar gained 103.70 yen in Asian trading against 103.76 Monday in New York.
In Tokyo trading, SoftBank Group overcapacity rose 4.52 percent to 8,055 yen while uniqlo Fast Retailing caseload operator jumped 4.49 percent to 90,810 yen.
The shipping industry was also higher, with Mitsui OSK Lines rising 2.11 percent to 3,145 yen and Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha rising 3.34 percent to 2,070 yen.
Sony rose 2.06 percent to 10,390 yen and Panasonic climbed 2.04 percent to 1,198 yen.