- The Nikkei 225 crossed the 40,000 mark for the first time in 3 months, while the Topix was shy of its all-time closing high.
- The Japanese yen weakened to as much as 161.67 against the dollar, staying at 38-year lows.
Asia-Pacific markets mostly fell on Tuesday, breaking ranks with Wall Street that saw the Nasdaq Composite reach a new record on the back of tech stocks.
The index, led by gains in Microsoft, Apple and chipmaker Nvidia, advanced 0.83% to end at 17,879.3.
Traders in Asia assessed South Korea's inflation rate which came in at 2.4% for June, missing expectations of economists polled by Reuters who had predicted it at 2.7%.
Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 1.12% to close at a 3-month high of 40,074.69, while the broad-based Topix rose 1.15% to hit a fresh 34-year high of 2,856.62. The Topix is less than 30 points away from its all-time closing high of 2,884.80 achieved on December 18, 1989.
The Japanese yen weakened to as much as 161.67 against the dollar, staying at 38-year lows.
The Bank of Japan is likely to cut bond purchases by about $100 billion in the first year under a quantitative tightening plan to be released this month, according to a Reuters survey.
Money Report
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries rose for a seventh straight day, climbing 5.45% to a fresh all-time high.
South Korea's Kospi ended down 0.84% to 2,780.86 and the small-cap Kosdaq closed down 2.04% to 829.91 after the inflation data was released.
Feeling out of the loop? We'll catch you up on the Chicago news you need to know. Sign up for the weekly Chicago Catch-Up newsletter here.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was up 0.33% as of its final hour of trade. Mainland China's CSI 300 fell 0.18% to end at 3,471.79.
Longfor Group climbed 3.36% after the company repurchased $219.6 million of notes that carried an interest rate of 3.85%.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.42% to 7,718.2 as the Reserve Bank of Australia released the minutes from its June monetary policy meeting, in which board members discussed raising interest rates but eventually decided to hold them steady at 4.35%.
Members said it was still possible to achieve the inflation target within a reasonable time frame without moving from full employment, while acknowledging this "narrow path" was becoming narrower.
Overnight in the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 recorded gains, rising 0.13% and 0.27% respectively.
—CNBC's Brian Evans and Samantha Subin contributed to this report.
