The Nikkei puts up its best daily performance since 1 March
The boost in the Nikkei comes as Japan Post plans to take a 8.3% stake in Rakuten, bolstering the latter's shares by 11% on the announcement earlier today.
That is helping to offset the murmurs that the BOJ may not step in as often with ETF purchases unless the market does fall more significantly.
On the week itself, the Nikkei is up by just shy of 3%.
Elsewhere, the Hang Seng is down 0.5% while the Shanghai Composite is up 0.4% today.
US futures are keeping more tentative as Treasury yields are ticking higher and that is helping to underpin the dollar as well ahead of European trading.