TOKYO, March 17 (Reuters) - Japanese government bond prices were little changed on Friday as market players weighed whether the G20 financial policymakers' meeting this weekend would change the group's stance on currency policies and protectionism.
Differences over trade is seen as a potential sticking point for G20 gathering of finance ministers and central bankers in the German town of Baden-Baden on Friday and Saturday.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year JGBs was flat at 0.070 percent. The price of 10-year JGB futures dipped 0.05 point to 150.21.
The yield on the five-year JGBs rose 0.5 basis point to minus 0.130 percent.
There was fairly strong investor demand at an auction of 200 billion yen ($1.76 billion) of JGBs by the Ministry of Finance (MOF), underpinning the market sentiment, traders said.
The ministry re-offered 200 billion yen JGBs, one to five years left to maturity, in a so-called liquidity enhancement auction, where existing JGBs are re-offered to boost the liquidity of trading in those issues.
Separately, government sources told Reuters that the MOF was considering raising the minimum bidding requirement of primary dealers in government bond auctions to ensure the stability of the bond market. ($1 = 113.41 yen) (Reporting by Tokyo Markets Team; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri)