TOKYO, May 26 (Reuters) - An auction of 40-year Japanese government bonds on Thursday set a highest accepted yield of 0.4000 percent, with 36.7380 percent of the bids accepted at that yield, the Ministry of Finance said.

Details were as follows: Highest accepted yield 0.4000 pct Issue price 100.00 yen Coupon rate 0.40 pct Bids accepted at highest yield 36.7380 pct Total bids 1.226 trillion yen Accepted bids 399.4 billion yen Issue date May 30, 2016 Maturity date March 20, 2056 Bid-to-cover ratio 3.07 (Reporting by the Tokyo Markets Team; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)