Japan Stocks Rack Up Fresh Highs, But Takata Down On Fine

Japan stocks explored fresh 15-year highs Monday, as a broad uplift for the market sent the Nikkei Stock Average up 0.9% and the Topix higher by 0.8%. As is often the case, the market tracked gains for U.S. shares Friday, while also moving inversely to the yen, as the dollar edged up to �119.14 from �118.98 late Friday. Among the blue-chip outperformers were Konica Minolta Inc. and Nissan Motor Co. (up 1.8% each), Hitachi Ltd. and Toyota Motor Corp. (up 1.2% each), and Casio Computer Co. (up 2.1%). On the downside, Takata Corp. fell 2.9% after the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it was fining the Japanese auto-parts company $14,000 a day until the company more fully cooperates with the agency's investigation into faulty Takata airbags. Meanwhile, Tokyo Electric Power Co. was flat after swinging between gains and losses, as it reported that a fresh leak of highly radioactive water was detected at the utility's defunct Fukushima nuclear plant, according to Agence France-Presse.