TOKYO, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Japanese government bonds dipped on Wednesday as investors refrained from buying ahead of a 10-year JGB auction on Thursday.
Shorter maturities fared better on safe-haven bids, reflecting concerns over the new U.S. administration's policies.
The 10-year JGB yield rose 1.0 basis point to 0.090 percent , matching a six-week high touched last week and near the 0.10 percent mark, which is widely seen as the Bank of Japan's line of defence to keep the yield around its policy target of "around zero percent".
The Ministry of Finance will auction 2.4 trillion yen ($21.2 billion) of JGBs on Tuesday in February's first bond auction.
While market players expect decent demand, they typically reduce their long positions or take short positions ahead of auctions to make room for buying.
The BOJ's bond buying plan for February -- announced late on Tuesday -- contained few surprises as it was essentially the same as the January plan.
Still, investors remained nervous on the Bank of Japan's bond buying plans, especially after it surprised the market by skipping a widely anticipated round of buying in one to five-year bonds late last month, taking its January buying to the lowest in more than two years.
The 20-year yield rose 0.5 basis point to 0.660 percent while the 30-year yield rose 0.5 basis point to 0.830 percent.
Short-dated bonds were firm, thanks to steady demand from foreign investors.
The two-year yield fell 1.5 basis point to minus 0.225 percent while the five-year yield dipped 0.5 basis point to minus 0.105 percent
The price of 10-year JGB futures fell 0.04 point to 149.83 . ($1 = 113.18 yen) (Reporting by Tokyo Markets Team; Editing by Eric Meijer)