The Nikkei index ended Thursday's session higher as investors bought shares after a strong profit-taking campaign this week as the new fiscal year began.
The Nikkei rose 0.81 percent at the close, recording 39,773.14 points, after rising during the session by up to 2 percent, exceeding 40,000 points.
The broader Topix index closed up 0.94 percent at 2,732.00 points.
Shares of chip-related company Socionext rose 17.55 percent to hit a daily high after Morgan Stanley upgraded the stock to buy.
Robot maker Fanuc rose 3.16 percent and tech startup investor SoftBank Group rose 1.07 percent.
During its decline in the previous session, the Nikkei recorded a decline of 4.6 percent from a record high it reached on March 22.
Kao shares rose 5.14 percent after Hong Kong-based investment firm Oasis Management said it would launch a rebranding campaign for the cosmetics company and improve marketing for its products.
Itochu shares rose for a second session, rising 0.68 percent after the trading house said on Wednesday it aims to boost profit to a record 880 billion yen, up from an estimate of 800 billion yen, for the fiscal year that ended. The company's shares rose 6.4 percent in the previous session.
