TOKYO, June 17 (Reuters) -

Japan's 10-year government bond yield fell on Monday as

investors bet the Bank of Japan (BOJ) would hike rates at a

slower pace.

The 10-year JGB yield slipped as low as

0.915% and was last at 0.925%, down 0.5 basis point (bp) from

the previous session.

At its policy meeting on Friday, the BOJ said it would start

trimming its bond purchases and also announce a detailed plan in

July on reducing its nearly $5 trillion balance sheet.

Governor Kazuo Ueda gave few clues on how much the BOJ would

trim its bond purchases, saying only that the tapering size will

be "significant".

"If the BOJ announces a significant reduction in its bond

buying, that would have a certain impact on government bond

yields," said Naoya Hasegawa, chief bond strategist at Okasan

Securities.

The market view is that the BOJ will not raise rates and

announce details on the bond buying at the same time in July,

Hasegawa said, adding that his firm expects the central bank to

raise rates in October.

The BOJ maintained its short-term policy rate target in a

range of 0-0.1% on Friday, as expected. Some market participants

had expected it to raise rates again as early as in July.

The two-year JGB yield fell 1 bps to 0.285%

and the five-year yield slipped 1 bps to 0.505%.

Yields on bonds with longer maturities rose, with the

20-year JGB yield inching up 0.5 bps to 1.740%.

The 30-year JGB yield rose 2.5 bps to 2.115%

and the 40-year JGB yield was flat at 2.225%.