The benchmark 10-year JGB yield was unchanged at minus 0.240%. It dropped earlier in the day to minus 0.255%, its lowest since July 2016.

JGB yields initially sank on Friday, extending the previous day's sharp drop made on global recession fears triggered by an inversion of the U.S. Treasury yield curve.

But the drop in yields stopped as the equity markets managed to find traction after suffering large losses earlier in the week, with Japan's Nikkei edging up 0.1% on Friday.

The 30-year JGB yield was up 2.5 basis points at 0.180%, pulling back from a three-year low of 0.145% reached the previous day.

The Bank of Japan trimmed the amount of five- to 10-year bonds it offered to buy at Friday's regular operation to 450 billion yen ($4.24 billion) from the previous 480 billion yen in a bid to slow the decline in bond yields.