* Yen near high since late Aug amid BOJ doubt
* Deputy Governor Nakaso's speech in focus
By Hideyuki Sano
TOKYO, Sept 8 (Reuters) - The yen held on to its recent gains on Thursday as markets looked ahead to a speech by Bank of Japan Deputy Governor later in the day for clues on what the central bank might do at its policy review later this month.
The yen JPY= rose to 101.20 to the dollar on Wednesday, hitting its highest level since Aug. 26 and last stood at 101.68, having risen 2.1 percent so far this week as the dollar lost momentum on soft U.S. economic data.
The dollar has been under pressure since Friday's slightly disappointing jobs report and a surprisingly soft service sector survey on Tuesday cast doubt about the Federal Reserve's ability to raise interest rates soon despite hawkish rhetoric from Fed officials.
Moreover, investors have been bracing for a potentially underwhelming policy announcement from the Bank of Japan on Sept 21, when it is expected to unveil the results of a comprehensive policy review it promised in July.
While many investors expect the BOJ to announce additional easing steps, there is no clear consensus on what the BOJ will do given the widespread belief in markets that the BOJ's stimulus is reaching near its practical limit.
Traders are now looking to a speech by BOJ Deputy Governor Hiroshi Nakaso at 0430 GMT.
The euro was steady as investors also looked to whether the European Central Bank would decide to extend its asset purchase programme and tweak the parameters to ease supply scarcity issues, at its policy meeting later in the day.
On top of this, the ECB's bond buying is also facing an increasing hurdle because the pool of bonds, especially German Bunds, it can buy is dwindling.
"I suspect they will try to dispel the notion that its easing is near limit. But I'm not sure it is ready to take an action today," said Ayako Sera, market economist at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank.
The euro EUR= edged down to $1.1242 from Wednesday's high of $1.12725
Elsewhere, the New Zealand dollar NZD=D4 held at $0.7454 after having hit a 16-month high of $0.7485, supported by strong prices of dairy, a major export earner.
In Asia, Chinese trade data will be a big focus as investors try to gauge the extent of the slowdown in the world's second biggest economy. (Editing by Shri Navaratnam)