 "Nikkei suffers worst weekly loss since October")
Japan's Nikkei benchmark eked out a slight gain on Friday, though it still suffered its worst weekly loss since October, while Uniqlo clothing chain operator Fast Retailing Co Ltd climbed after its quarterly earnings beat expectations.
The Nikkei ended 0.2% higher at 15,912.06 ahead of the release of the US jobs report later in the day.
The benchmark Nikkei was down 2.3% this week, marking its biggest weekly decline since the period ended October 25. It surged 57% last year to log its best annual rise since 1972, driven by Japan's massive fiscal and monetary stimulus campaign.
Fast Retailing climbed 3.3% on Friday and was the top-weighted gainer in the Nikkei after it posted a higher-than-expected first-quarter profit.
The US nonfarm payrolls report, due out later in the day, will further signal how the world's largest economy is faring - and therefore, how fast the Federal Reserve will dial back stimulus. Economists polled by Reuters have forecast 196,000 jobs were added to the US economy in December.
The broader Topix index closed 0.1% higher at 1,298.48, with 3.26 billion shares changing hands, hitting a one-month high. The JPX-Nikkei Index 400, which started trading on Monday, was steady at 11,706.87.