Japan stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Retail, Mining and Fishery sectors led shares higher.

At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 rose 1.49%.

The best performers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Recruit Holdings Co Ltd (TYO:6098), which rose 6.77% or 298.00 points to trade at 4,701.00 at the close. Meanwhile, Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd. (TYO:4568) added 5.17% or 196.00 points to end at 3,986.00 and Sony Corp (TYO:6758) was up 4.50% or 560.00 points to 13,010.00 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were T&D Holdings, Inc. (TYO:8795), which fell 2.53% or 54.50 points to trade at 2,100.00 at the close. Resona Holdings, Inc. (TYO:8308) declined 2.29% or 16.60 points to end at 707.70 and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. (TYO:7211) was down 2.29% or 11.50 points to 490.10.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Tokyo Stock Exchange by 2217 to 1348 and 272 ended unchanged.

The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was up 4.16% to 21.52.

Crude oil for August delivery was up 0.08% or 0.06 to $75.81 a barrel. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Brent oil for delivery in September rose 0.17% or 0.14 to hit $80.25 a barrel, while the August Gold Futures contract rose 0.12% or 2.45 to trade at $1,964.15 a troy ounce.

USD/JPY was down 0.03% to 138.46, while EUR/JPY rose 0.08% to 154.25.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.03% at 100.16.