By Kevin Buckland
TOKYO, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Japanese government bond yields were mostly steady on Wednesday, with investors largely shrugging off an overnight surge in U.S. yields amid Bank of Japan debt operations and expectations that the next central bank governor won't rush to change policy.
Benchmark 10-year JGB futures rose 0.03 yen to 146.84 on the day, with the cash 10-year JGB untraded as of 0650 GMT. The yield on the benchmark note was last at 0.5%, the top of the BOJ's policy ceiling.
Incoming BOJ governor Kazuo Ueda will testify before parliament on Friday of next week, and before the senate the following Monday, keeping some investors on the sidelines until they hear more on his views, said Masayuki Kichikawa, chief macro strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management.
"The nomination of Ueda cooled speculation of abrupt changes in BOJ policy, although no one really knows what he is thinking," Kichikawa said.
"The consensus though is that he's in no rush," supporting the market and keeping yields low, he added.
The BOJ offered to buy a total of 1.6 trillion yen ($12 billion) of debt spanning all maturities on Wednesday, in addition to its daily unlimited purchase operations.
The 20-year JGB yield fell 1 basis point to 1.275%, and the 30-year yield declined 3 basis points to 1.455%.
The five-year yield was flat at 0.19%, while the two-year yield edged up 0.5 basis point to -0.055%. ($1 = 133.26 yen) (Reporting by Kevin Buckland; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)