In South Korea, the Kospi gained 0.59% to close at 2,134.32, while Australia's rose 0.39% to end its trading day Down Under at 6,666.30.

Mainland Chinese shares rose on the day, with the Shanghai composite adding 0.69% to 2,996.79 and the Shenzhen component rising 1.28% to 9,239.48. The Shenzhen composite also advanced 1.092% to 1,577.56.

Shares of troubled Apple supplier Japan Display soared 18.33% after Japanese media reported that the tech giant would inject $100 million into the company.

The Nikkei 225 rose 1.19% to close at 21,338.17, while the Topix index added 1.23% to finish its trading day at 1,553.27.

Markets in Asia Pacific advanced on Thursday as investors awaited the meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G-20 summit.

Overnight stateside, the closed 0.1% lower at 2,913.78, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 11.40 points to end its trading day at 26,536.82. The Nasdaq Composite, on the other hand, added 0.3% to close at 7,909.97.

Stocks on Wall Street had traded higher for most of Wednesday's session after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC he thinks "there's a path" for the U.S. and China to complete a trade deal. His comment came ahead of a highly-anticipated meeting between Trump and Xi at the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan later this week.

"We've seen this sort of optimistic commentary before events, and I think everybody is hoping that that will be the case. However, it could also be a reflection of the U.S. administration buying more time and even in case a deal is reached at the G-20, we do not expect tariffs to be ... revoked overnight," Carlos Casanova, Asia Pacific economist at Coface, told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Thursday.

"At minimum, investors are (hoping) that the trade talks will resume after this weekend's meeting between the 2 leaders. We think they will but President Trump is extremely difficult to predict," Kathy Lien, managing director of foreign exchange strategy for BK Asset Management, wrote in a note.

For his part, Trump said Wednesday that a U.S.-China trade deal was possible, but noted he is "very happy with where we are now."

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 96.291, above levels below 96.0 seen earlier in the week.

The traded at 108.07 against the dollar after weakening from levels below 107.4 yesterday, while the was at $0.6991 after rising from levels around $0.696 in the previous session.

Oil prices declined in the afternoon of Asian trading hours, with the international benchmark Brent crude futures contract shedding 0.6% to $66.09 per barrel, while U.S. crude futures fell 0.62% to $59.01 per barrel.

— CNBC's Fred Imbert contributed to this report.