TOKYO, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Japanese government bond

yields moved without a clear direction on Tuesday, amid

conflicting messages from top Bank of Japan officials and ahead

of the U.S. Federal Reserve's closely watched Jackson Hole

symposium later in the week.

Benchmark 10-year JGB futures rose 0.04 yen to

144.76 as of 0512 GMT, taking cues from an overnight decline in

U.S. yields.

Cash 10-year JGB yields were flat at 0.885%,

after oscillating between small increases and decreases earlier

in the session.

Ten-year Treasury yields declined overnight as

traders looked ahead to Fed Chair Jerome Powell's keynote speech

at Jackson Hole on Friday for clues on the pace and scale of

interest rate cuts, with a first reduction expected at the

mid-September policy meeting.

The outlook for monetary policy at home is even murkier.

After BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda surprised investors by

striking a hawkish posture at the end of last month, sending the

yen soaring, his influential deputy Shinichi Uchida appeared to

backtrack just days later by saying the BOJ wouldn't tighten

policy when markets are volatile.

"JGBs are really hard to trade for foreign investors,

considering the communication from the BOJ has been a bit

difficult to comprehend," said Shoki Omori, chief Japan desk

strategist at Mizuho Securities.

"Nowadays, I don't think a lot of people are trading JGBs on

macro. It's really about supply and demand."

The 20-year JGB yield initially fell as much

as 1.5 basis points (bps) to 1.705% after solid demand at an

auction of the securities, but then drifted back up to last be

0.5 bp higher at 1.73%.

The 30-year yield rose 1.5 bps to 2.085%.

The five-year yield was flat at 0.505%, while

the two-year yield eased 0.5 bp to 0.36%.

(Reporting by Kevin Buckland; Editing by Varun H K)