Japanese shares closed lower on Wednesday after the government released weak economic data.
The Nikkei 225 slipped 33.94 points, 0.29% to 11,565.88.
Japanese industrial output fell 2.1% in February, economists were expecting decline of 1.1%.
"Yesterday's steep falls were driven by concern the output data would be pretty bad. So few people are out there to play (this morning)," said Yutaka Shiraki from Mitsubishi Securities. "The big game has been postponed to Friday when the tankan is due. After seeing the latest series of weak numbers, the results could be even worse than previously anticipated. But we don't know yet."
Advantest closed unchanged at 8110 yen, Canon was up 0.53% to 5660 yen. NEC declined 0.92% to 643 yen. Sony fell 0.93% to 4240 yen.
Daiei fell 0.92% to 215 yen.
Honda fell 0.74% to 5360, Nissan Motor added 0.55% to 1089 yen, Toyota rose 0.50% to 4010 yen.
Yto-Yokado dropped 0.94% to 4230 yen.
FOREX
In the currency market, the euro rose to $1.2958 from $1.2923 in New York late Tuesday. The dollar fell to 107.33 yen, from $107.52 yen.