FOREX-Yen benefits as other major c.banks prepare rate cuts

* Yen climbs on expectations of global interest rate cuts

* Expected BoE, ECB, RBA, RBNZ rate cuts this week weigh

* U.S. jobs data also in focus

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By Jamie McGeever

LONDON, Dec 1 (Reuters) - The Japanese yen strengthened on Monday and currencies of countries where central banks are expected to slash interest rates later this week, such as the euro, sterling and Australian dollar, all weakened.

The Bank of England, the European Central Bank, the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand are all expected to cut rates by at least half a percentage point, diminishing the yield advantage of their currencies over the ultra-low yielding yen.

Analysts expect these four major central banks will cut rates aggressively to counter the threat of deflation and prevent the global financial market crisis from spilling over into further economic weakness.

The yen also garnered some support from broad weakness in world stock markets on the first trading day of the month, while crude oil's slide of 4 percent after OPEC deferred a supply cut helped support the Japanese unit and U.S. dollar, analysts said.

"Currencies where rates are heading down toward zero should continue to suffer, and those that are already close to zero should continue to benefit," said Neil Jones, head of hedge fund sales at Mizuho.

The Bank of Japan, meanwhile, whose key interest rates are a mere 0.3 percent, said it will hold an emergency meeting on Tuesday to discuss changes in the use of corporate debt for collateral banks put up to access central bank funds.

At 0850 GMT the dollar was down 0.7 percent against the yen at 94.75 yen JPY= and the euro was down 1.1 percent against the Japanese unit at 119.85 yen EURJPY=.

The euro was also down 0.4 percent against the dollar at $1.2641 EUR=, and sterling was off 1.3 percent against the greenback at $1.5191 GBP=.

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