Japan's short-term bond yields recover slightly after hawkish BOJ remarks

(Recasts headline and paragraph 1, adds details and updates yield levels)

By Junko Fujita

TOKYO, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Yields on short-term Japanese government bonds recovered some early losses on Friday, following ?remarks from a hawkish Bank of ?Japan board member, as the market reacted to the prospect of tighter policy.

The ?benchmark 10-year JGB yield fell 1 basis point (bp) to 2.22%, after ?initially dipping as much as 3.5 basis ?points at 2.195% ?earlier in the session. The five-year yield was down 1 bp at 1.69%.

BOJ ?board member Naoki Tamura said ?that he sees a good chance of the country durably achieving its 2% inflation target by around spring ?this year.

"His comments were ?within market ?expectations, but those became a cue for selling bonds," said Katsutoshi Inadome, a senior strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust ?Asset Management.

Tamura, a former commercial bank executive, was ?one of the two board members who unsuccessfully proposed raising the BOJ's short-term policy rate in October. At a subsequent meeting in December, the central bank raised the rate to 0.75% ?from ?0.5%.

The two-year yield was last down 1.5 ?bps at 1.285%. It rose as high as 1.295% right after ?the speech.

Yields move inversely to bond prices.

Yields on super-long-dated bonds rose on Friday after sharp declines this week, with the 30-year yield rising as much as 3.5 bps to 3.060%. The yield on the 40-year JGB also climbed 3.5 bps to 3.665%.

Yields of super-long-dated ?bonds fell sharply after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's Liberal Democratic Party won a landslide victory in a snap election on Sunay ?as concerns over fiscal health ?eased.

(Reporting by Junko Fujita; Editing by Subhranshu ?Sahu and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)