In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index at the lunch break was up 0.9 percent and the broader Topix index was at plus 0.5.
The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was also cautiously up and landed at lunch at plus 0.3 percent.
In China there were small movements and a negative trend. Shanghai’s composite index was down 0.2 percent late in the morning and the Shenzhen composite index was down 0.4 percent.