Japan bond yields near 3% as inflation, fiscal worries mount

TOKYO, Aug 18 : Japan's benchmark bond yield is on the brink of hitting 3 per cent for the first time since the mid-1990s, highlighting how inflation, rising fiscal concerns and monetary policy expectations are reshaping a market long defined by low interest rates.A 10-year Japanese government bond yield at 3 per cent was practically unthinkable until recently, following more than a decade of massive central bank debt purchases that kept the nation's interest rates artificially low.Now with the Middle East crisis stoking inflation fears globally, and pressure on the Bank of Japan to accelerate rate hikes, yields are jumping to historic levels across the JGB curve.The question for investors is whether the surge in yields, which has seen the 10-year benchmark more than triple in two years, r