Japan's Nikkei Stock Average opened higher on Thursday but erased gains later and closed into negative area, dropping 0.41% or 36.52 points to 8,847.17. Exporters experienced the biggest losses as Toshiba Corp. declined 1.7%, Sharp Corp. edged down 0.6% and Hitachi Ltd. gave up 0.9%. Nintendo Co and NEC Corp. lost 0.9% and 1.2% respectively ahead of their earnings reports. On the upside Tokyo Electric Power Co. jumped 5.45% after announcing, it plans to become profitable again in 2014.