TOKYO: Japanese government bond yields largely rose on Thursday as investors remained cautious about a possible change in the Bank of Japan’s (BOJ) ultra-rate policy.

The 10-year JGB yield inched up 0.5 basis point (bp) to 0.460%, while the 30-year JGB yield rose 1.5 bps to 1.330%.

Japan’s new central bank chief Kazuo Ueda is likely to keep monetary settings ultra-loose at his debut policy meeting which ends on Friday.

But some market participants braced for a surprise tweak in the central bank’s yield curve control policy, as the bank did in December.

“There is a caution for a surprise in the market,” said Takayuki Miyajima, senior economist at Sony Financial Group. “Given the downward pressure on US Treasury yields, Japanese yields could have been lower.

The yields staying at this level means there is a caution.“ In December, the central bank unexpectedly widened the trading band of the 10-year JGB yield to 50 bps from 25 bps around zero.

The 40-year JGB yield edged up 0.5 bp to 1.505%, while the 20-year JGB yield was flat at 1.080%.

Superlong JGB yields fall amid bets for buying by life insurers

The two-year JGB yield rose 0.5 bp to -0.035%, while the five-year yield was also flat at 0.145%.

Benchmark 10-year JGB futures fell 0.03 yen to 148.01, with a trading volume of 12,121 lots.