In Tuesday's early trading, the Nikkei 225 index on the Tokyo stock exchange rose to a new record level, an increase of 1.5 percent driven by, among other things, semiconductor companies' prospects.
The broader Topix index was up 0.6 percent.
In China, trading went in the opposite direction with the composite index in Shanghai and Shenzhen down 0.6 and 0.9 percent, respectively.
In Hong Kong, the decline for the Hang Seng index was minus 0.8 percent.
