TOKYO, July 5 (Reuters) - Japanese government bonds were mixed on Friday, as traders waited for several key overseas events, including the crucial U.S. employment figures later in the day, for further direction.

Risks around the outlook for Federal Reserve policy have overtaken speculation about the Bank of Japan's policy path in recent days, with the market starting to form a consensus around the pace of the local central bank's tapering of monthly bond purchases, said Shinichiro Kadota, a strategist at Barclays in Tokyo.

"Long term, the direction for JGB yields is still higher, but in the very near term, it depends on how overseas events play out," Kadota said, pointing in particular to U.S. monthly jobs figures and the French election at the weekend.

The 10-year JGB yield eased 1 basis point (bp) to 1.07% as of 0500 GMT, continuing its retreat from Wednesday's high of 1.1%. It had reached the same level on May 30, but prior to that yields hadn't been so high since July 2011.

The 20-year yield fell 0.5 bp to 1.93%.

Other tenors ticked higher though, with the 30-year yield up 1 bp to 2.195%, while two- and five-year yields each rose 0.5 bp to 0.34% and 0.58%, respectively.

Overall, Japanese yields have been push pushing higher since the end of March, that month that the BOJ raised interest rates for the first time since 2007.

The central bank will outline its plan for quantitative tightening at its meeting at the end of this month, after consulting with bond market participants on July 9-10.

There is speculation the BOJ may hike rates at the same meeting to help support a yen languishing at its weakest in 38 years against the dollar.

"On the domestic side, the market's biggest concern is the July BOJ meeting," said Norihiro Yamaguchi, an economist at Oxford Economics in Tokyo.

"Until then, it's likely the market will stay jittery." (Reporting by Kevin Buckland; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)