TOKYO, March 19 (Reuters) - Japanese Government Bonds were little changed on Monday, with many Japanese market participants keeping to the sidelines ahead of their book-closing at the end of this month.
The market reaction was largely muted despite a fall in public support for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe following suspicions of his involvement in a cronyism scandal.
The 10-year JGB futures gained 0.02 point to 150.89, clocking a meagre 11,673 lots in trading volume, the lowest since Christmas.
The benchmark 10-year JGB yield rose 0.5 basis point to 0.035 percent while the 20-year JGB yield was flat at 0.535 percent.
The 30-year JGB yield was also flat at 0.755 percent.
The Bank of Japan’s holdings of government debt rose to a record 449 trillion yen ($4.24 trillion), or 41.1 percent of all government debt at the end of December, data from the BOJ showed on Monday.
Reporting by Tokyo Markets Team; Editing by Vyas Mohan