TOKYO, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Japanese government bonds edged up on Wednesday, with domestic banks chasing the midterm sector as demand for funding from corporates remains subdued. * Five-year bonds rose a day after an auction of the same maturity drew the strongest demand in over two years, underscoring healthy bank appetite for government debt. Banks have been steady buyers of short- and midterm JGBs as they are flush with cash due to the Bank of Japan's easy monetary policy and slow growth in lending in recent months.
* The benchmark 10-year yield and JGB futures sat tight as investors other than banks feel JGB prices have risen to levels where they no longer look attractive.
* "JGB yields are unlikely to drop further as global funds are seen flowing back to riskier assets," said Tetsuya Miura, chief market analyst at Mizuho Securities. But one factor that could possibly push down government bond yields would be a sharp appreciation in the yen against the dollar as that would undermine Japanese exporters profits and the overall economy, Miura continued.
* The dollar hovered near a one-year low against a basket of currencies, hurt by a huge sell-off from investors buying riskier assets such as stocks, commodities and higher-yielding currencies.
* JGBs have rallied across the board in the past month with futures prices hitting five-month highs on expectations that it will take some time before the economic recovery becomes solid enough to prompt the BOJ to lift interest rates from the current 0.1 percent.
* The current September JGB futures contract inched up 0.02 point to 139.10 ahead of Thursday's expiry. Analysts and traders said they expect positions to roll over smoothly to December futures.
* The benchmark 10-year yield was unchanged on the day at 1.325 percent after rising to 1.330 percent in early trade.
* The yield on the new No. 85 five-year bond fell 1 basis point to 0.620 percent as banks bought.
* The yields on 20- and 30-year debt dipped 0.5 basis point each to 2.060 percent and 2.205 percent respectively. (Reporting by Rika Otsuka; Editing by Joseph Radford)