TOKYO, April 24 (Reuters) - Japan's 10-year government

bond (JGB) yield hit a five-month high on Wednesday as the

market braced for any signals of another rate hike at the Bank

of Japan's (BOJ) policy meeting this week.

The 10-year JGB yield rose 1 basis point (bp)

to 0.89%, its highest since Nov. 11. The five-year yield

rose 0.5 bp to 0.495%.

The BOJ is expected to project that inflation will stay

around its 2% target for the next three years in new forecasts,

signalling its readiness to raise interest rates again this year

from current near-zero levels.

The two-year JGB yield, which is highly

sensitive to the BOJ's policy, was flat at 0.3%, its highest

level since July 2009.

The BOJ earlier in the day kept the amounts for its regular

bond purchases intact.

"If the BOJ cuts the amounts of the regular bond buying, it

may be able to slow the pace of the yen weakening," said Ataru

Okumura, senior strategist at SMBC Nikko Securities.

The central bank made a historic shift out of negative

interest rates last month but the yen has been trading at a

near 34-year low on the back of expectations that the U.S. rates

will remain higher for longer.

The market expects Japan's inflation will accelerate with

the yen's weakness and rising oil prices, adding upward pressure

on JGB yields, said Keisuke Tsuruta, fixed income strategist at

Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities.

The break-even inflation rate, or the gap in the yields

between the 10-year inflation-linked bonds and the 10-year JGBs,

was last at 1.5575% on Wednesday, crossing the 10-year peak hit

in November.

The 20-year JGB yield was flat at 1.660% and

the 30-year JGB yield fell 0.5 bp to 1.945%.