Nikkei Rises on Weaker Yen

Strong employment data from the U.S. helped Japanese and Australian stocks climb higher on Monday, though the latest chain of economic data from China weighed on sentiment, especially in Shanghai.

"The world's largest economy continues to recover, while the world's second-largest economy looks like it has run into a bit of a soft patch," said Matthew Sherwood, head of investment market research at Perpetual in Sydney.

Chinese inflation jumped to 3.2% in February, from 2.0% in January�the highest increase since April of last year. At the same time, there were some signs of weaker activity in the country's domestic economy, with slowing growth in industrial production and retail sales.

Higher-than-expected inflation could raise concerns that Beijing will start monetary tightening. It might be too early to call a serious slowdown in the Chinese recovery as the latest data may have been affected by the Lunar New Year, a period that is often associated with a sharp increase in the price of food and other goods, which occurred in January in 2012 and February in 2013.

Stocks in Mainland China fell on the back of the data, with the Shanghai Composite down 0.4% to 2310.59. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index ended the day down just one point at 23090.82.

"The economic data wasn't very encouraging. Investors are still eyeing for more details on the local government's property tightening measures, and they could weigh down on shares for a while," said Jacky Zheng, analyst in Capital Securities.

The latest economic data from China was offset by U.S. employment data released on Friday, which provided further signs of recovery in the world's largest economy. U.S. employers added 236,000 jobs in February, compared with economist forecasts of 160,000.

Australian stocks closed higher, with the S&P/ASX 200 up 0.5% to 5146.90. Mining stocks were lower, impacted by the Chinese data, while there were gains in some local banks: Rio Tinto fell 2% and BHP Billiton lost 0.8%, while National Australia Bank added 1.7% and Commonwealth Bank of Australia rose 0.4%.

The U.S. dollar rose sharply against the yen on Friday and was steady at �96.03 late in Asian trade on Monday.

Japanese stocks climbed amid a weaker yen, with the Nikkei up 0.5% to 12349.05. Shares in exporters benefited from the softer currency: Toyota Motor advanced 1.8% and Honda Motor was 2.6% higher.

Also in Japan, stocks in sectors sensitive to monetary easing�such as the financial and real estate sectors�continued to climb. Expectations for looser monetary policy were higher before the confirmation of the new Bank of Japan governor, with the change in leadership at the Bank of Japan expected to take place next week. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group rose 6.7% and Mitsubishi Estate gained 1.5%.

South Korea's Kospi lost 0.1% to 2003.35, and Singapore's Strait Times Index was last up 0.2%.

Write to Daniel Inman at daniel.inman@wsj.com