TOKYO, June 17 (Reuters) - Japan's government bonds held

steady in early trading on Tuesday, as investors looked ahead to

a key central bank decision on debt purchase plans for the next

fiscal year.

The 10-year JGB yield was at 1.45%, unchanged

from the previous session, after falling 1 basis point (bp) to

1.44% earlier in the session.

The Bank of Japan is expected to keep interest rates steady

at the end of its two-day meeting and to announce a slower pace

of reductions in its bond purchases from the next fiscal year.

A slowdown in tapering would effectively signal a dovish

shift and offer support to the JGB market, which has been shaken

by weak demand at recent auctions and a surge in super-long

yields to record levels last month.

"Investors cautiously await the exact amounts of the cuts in

the bond buying, but they also want to see any signs of the

final goal of the reduction," said Yoshiro Sato, economist at

Resona Holdings.

The BOJ began tapering its massive bond buying last year in

a bid to wean the economy off decades of heavy stimulus and

revive a market that had been left dormant by its dominant

presence.

The central bank's tapering has coincided with weakening

demand for long-dated debt among life insurers and other

traditional buyers. At the same time, investors have grown wary

of Japan's fiscal outlook, as some lawmakers advocate for

increased stimulus spending to attract voters ahead of the upper

house election in July.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance is also expected to

reduce the sale of longer-dated bonds to improve demand for such

bonds.

The five-year yield was flat at 1.010% and the

20-year JGB yield slid 0.5 bp to 2.375%.