TOKYO, April 20 (Reuters) - Japanese shares rose for a second session on Wednesday, as heavyweight technology stocks tracked overnight Wall Street gains, while the yen's recent slump helped boost automakers.
The Nikkei share average ended 0.86% higher at 27,217.85, while the broader Topix rose 1.03% to 1,915.15.
"U.S. Treasury yields were rising, so investors were not able to buy growth shares aggressively," said Hideyuki Suzuki, general manager at investment research for SBI Securities.
"Many investors seem to be awaiting corporate earnings before they start taking positions."
Uniqlo clothing shop owner Fast Retailing provided the biggest boost to the Nikkei index, rising 2.5%, followed by technology investor SoftBank Group, which climbed 1.44%.
Auto and parts makers led gains of the Tokyo Stock Exchange's 33 industry sub-indexes, jumping 3.39%, after the yen weakened to the lowest level against the dollar in 20 years.
Toyota Motor jumped 3.74% and was the biggest boost for the Topix. Honda Motor climbed 3.59%.
Heavyweight chip-related stocks Tokyo Electron lost 1.25% and Advantest fell 1.29%.
Media company CyberAgent Inc was the biggest loser in the Nikkei, with a 2.81% drop, followed by electronic application equipment maker Keyence Corp losing 2.14%.
There were 181 advancers in the Nikkei index against 40 decliners.
The volume of shares traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's main board was 1.19 billion, compared with the average of 1.31 billion in the past 30 days.
(Reporting by Tokyo markets team; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
