The Ministry of Finance offered 1.2 trillion yen of reopened 2 0-year JGBs with a coupon of 1.7 percent, matching that of last month's sale.
The sale drew bids of 3.81 times the amount offered, down from the previous sale's bid-to-cover ratio of 4.54, but the tail between the average and lowest accepted prices narrowed to 0.01 from 0.08 at last month's offering, indicating strong demand.
"In the secondary market, people are getting cautious," said Maki Shimizu, senior strategist at Citigroup Global Markets Japan.
"The carry-focused purchase in the recent market has made the 10-year sector really rich, so that would be the tenor where profit-taking or some selling will come, and that's what happened in today's market despite the good auction result," she said.
The benchmark 10-year JGB yield added 2.5 basis points t o 0 .790 percent after it earlier touched 0.795 percent, its highest since Sept. 25.
The 20-year yield added 1.5 basis points to 1.690 percent, while the 30-year yield added 1 basis point to 1.940 percent after earlier rising to 1.950 percent, its highest level since Sept. 20.
Soaring stocks also undermined demand for fixed-income assets, as a spate of Chinese data helped lift the Nikkei share average 2 percent.
China's third-quarter gross domestic product grew 7.4 percent from a year ago, in line with expectations, while other data from that country slightly exceeded forecasts.
US Treasuries also wallowed around low levels in Asia after falling on Wednesday in the wake of data showing new US homebuilding surged in September to its fastest pace in more than four years.
"Treasuries fell overnight, and JGBs tracked this, creating a possible buying opportunity, but not many seem to be buying," said a fixed-income fund manager at a Japanese trust bank.
"There were some long positions in Treasuries, so they corrected, but there weren't such big longs in JGBs, so they have smaller room to move," he added.
The 10-year JGB futures contract ended down 0.30 point at 143.89, after falling as low as 143.79, its lowest since Sept. 21. Volume was heavy, with 51,767 contracts trading, the highest since June 7.
Futures fell below their 20-day moving average, now at 144.13, for the first time since Sept. 24.
In a possibly bearish signal, their 5-day moving average, now at 144.18, fell below their 14-day moving average at 144.20.