The Nikkei index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange rose 80.78 points to 10,686.43 by the lunch break.The Topix index of all first section shares rose 0.89 percent, or 8.45 points, to 955.08.Today's GDP will not alter the general view that Japan is likely to emerge from a lull by early spring," said Tsuyoshi Segawa, senior strategist at Mizuho Securities.

Share prices got off to a strong start despite government data released shortly before the opening bell that showed Japan's gross domestic product contracted in the last quarter of 2010 on sliding consumer consumption and demand.The figures also confirmed that Japan ceded its spot as the world's second-biggest economy to China in 2010.

Real gross domestic product slipped by an annualised 1.1 percent in the October-December quarter as the expiration of auto subsidies hit car sales and a strong yen hurt exports, the government said.The fourth-quarter contraction was widely expected but the figure beat analyst expectations of a 2.4 percent contraction according to a Dow Jones Newswires poll of economists.Japanese share prices also got support from a modest gain on Wall Street on Friday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 43.97 points 0.36 percent to finish at 12,273.26, with investors cautiously welcoming the departure of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak but worried about the uncertainty of a handover of power to the military.

The broad-based S&P 500 index advanced 7.28 points 0.55 percent to 1,329.15.

Olympus rose 3.66 percent to 2,543 following the appointment of a new non-Japanese president. Dai-ichi Life Insurance rose 4.07 percent to 145,700 on improving earnings in its insurance segment.