Japan's Nikkei share average fell on Friday ahead of US jobs data, though Sony Corp soared as traders said investors were hoping its new CEO would turn things around after it forecast a $2.9 billion annual loss.

Sony surged 7.5 per cent, while the Topix electric machinery subindex was the top sectoral performer, up 1.7 per cent.

"There is some confidence in the CEO (Kazuo Hirai). It certainly can't get much worse," a sales trader at a foreign brokerage said.

Hirai, a 51-year-old Sony veteran known for reviving the PlayStation gaming operations through aggressive cost-cutting, replaces Howard Stringer as CEO in April.

"Sony looks incredibly cheap ... Even though the numbers were bad, they were not the shocking erosion of a fundamental sort of value of the company's asset that happened two days ago with Sharp," the trader said.

Deutsche Bank said most of the losses were impairment from exiting a flat panel joint venture with Samsung Electronics, while many divisions in its core operations outperformed guidance and inventory fell to 47 days from 66 days in the second quarter.

The Nikkei was down 0.3 per cent at 8,854.26, though it is still up 4.7 per cent for the year, while the broader Topix was flat at 762.52. US nonfarm payrolls, due at 1330 GMT, likely rose by 150,000 after increasing 200,000 in December, according to a Reuters survey.

The unemployment rate is seen holding steady at a near three-year low of 8.5 per cent.

Other gainers in the electric machinery sector included Canon, which advanced 2.7 per cent after it said it will buy back up to 50 billion yen ($657 million) of its own shares between Feb. 3 and March 19.

Panasonic Corp gained 1.5 per cent despite media reports that it will increase its forecast loss for the year to March to more than 700 billion yen ($9.2 billion), hurt by losses from acquiring Sanyo Electric and a slowdown in global demand.

Panasonic is due to announce its quarterly earnings and latest forecasts later in the day.

But Softbank Corp shed 3.5 per cent after it reported lower year-on-year operating profit and average revenue per user -- a key gauge for telecom operators -- for the third quarter.

BEYOND EARNINGS Although Japan's corporate earnings results have been disappointing so far, the market is looking ahead to the next quarter.

"Autos, for example, are expected to post profits and there are already signs of strength from sales numbers in Japan and the United States," said Hideyuki Ishiguro, a strategist at Okasan Securities.

Toyota Motor Corp put on 0.4 per cent and Nissan Motor Co added 0.1 per cent.

"When the US volatility index is treading around 20, foreign investors do not buy Japanese equities. But when Vix breaks below 20 -- it's around 17 today -- foreign buying of Japanese stocks accelerates, which explains recent volumes and foreign net buying over the last four weeks," Ishiguro said.