TOKYO, April 20 (Reuters) - Japanese shares rose on Wednesday, led by advances in heavyweight technology and other growth stocks tracking overnight Wall Street gains, while a weaker yen boosted automakers.

The Nikkei share average rose 0.57% to 27,139.99 by the midday break, while the broader Topix gained 0.75% to 1,909.90.

"The market was driven by short-term investors, as it was hard to make active bets right now with the FOMC (U.S. Federal Open Market Committee) meeting ahead of us," said a market participant from a domestic brokerage.

Uniqlo clothing shop owner Fast Retailing provided the biggest boost to the Nikkei, rising 0.79%, followed by technology investor SoftBank Group, rising 1.26%. Health equipment maker Terumo jumped 2.24%.

Auto and parts makers led gains of the Tokyo Stock Exchange's 33 industry sub-indexes, jumping 3.2%, after the yen fell to the lowest level against the dollar in 20 years.

Toyota Motor jumped 3.58% and Honda Motor climbed 3.41%.

Heavyweight chip-related stocks Tokyo Electron lost 0.04% and Advantest fell 0.58%.

Electronic application equipment maker Keyence was the biggest loser on the Nikkei, down 2.32%, followed by game maker Konami Holdings, losing 2.32%.

There were 164 advancers on the Nikkei index against 57 decliners.

The volume of shares traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's main board was 0.61 billion, compared to the average of 1.31 billion in the past 30 days.

(Reporting by Tokyo markets team; Editing by Rashmi Aich)