Asia's leading stock exchanges started the week's last trading day mostly downward as investors await the monthly job figures from the US, which will be published later on Friday.
Against the trend, the important Nikkei 225 index had increased by 0.3 percent around lunchtime, while the broader Topix index instead fell by 0.1.
From Hong Kong, gloomy tones were heard as the Hang Seng index lost 1.1 percent.
Nor was it particularly cheerful at the composite indexes in Shanghai and Shenzhen, which shrank by 0.9 and 0.3 percent, respectively.
