Nikkei 225 Rises 1.3% at Morning Close, Topix Up 0.1%

The gap between the Nikkei 225 and the Topix at the morning close points to gains concentrated in a relatively small set of large-cap names rather than broad participation across the Tokyo market. That distinction matters because narrow leadership can reflect index-specific flows or positioning in blue chips rather than a genuine shift in overall risk appetite among Japanese equities. Whether the wider market catches up to the blue-chip gauge, or the divergence simply persists through the close, is the open question.