TOKYO: Benchmark Japanese government bonds inched lower on Wednesday while longer maturities edged up, but the moves were slight ahead of next week's Bank of Japan policy meeting.
The BOJ is expected to maintain its minus 0.1 percent short-term interest rate target at its two-day meeting ending on Tuesday.
In September, the BOJ shifted the focus of its monetary policy framework to controlling the yield curve by actively guiding the 10-year yield around zero.
"It seems that up to now, the BOJ's new policy is working well," said Tadashi Matsukawa, head of fixed income investment at PineBridge Investments in Tokyo.
"Fortunately, there's not much volatility in the JGB market, with very little trading activity right now," he said.
Under its asset purchase programme the BOJ offered on Wednesday to buy 400 billion yen of 1- to 3-year JGBs, 420 billion yen of 3- to 5-year JGBs, 190 billion yen of 10- to 25-year JGBs, and 110 billion yen of 25- to 40-year JGBs.
The benchmark 10-year JGB yield added half a basis point (bp) to minus 0.065 percent, while December 10-year futures were down 0.03 point at 151.86 in afternoon trading.
In the superlong zone prices were slightly higher. The 20-year JGB yield shed 0.5 bp to 0.360 percent and the 30-year yield also inched 0.5 bp lower to 0.480 percent .
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