The euro fell 0.7 percent and the Australian dollar 0.6 percent against the yen, and the European currency triggered sell orders as it headed down to 112.00 yen, with more sell stops expected below that threshold.

Talk of month-end yen demand from Japanese exporters as well as dollar selling by overseas hedge funds who had bought the pair the day before helped push the Japanese currency nearer to Monday's 15-year peak of 80.41 yen per dollar and within a yen of its record trough of 79.75 set in 1995.

But the major currencies were broadly in the ranges that have confined them in the past few weeks as investors wait to see if the Fed says next week that it will resume quantitative easing as many expect, and if so, in what size and over what time horizon.

"Overall the moves seem to be of the position unwinding variety," said a trader for a Japanese brokerage house.

Japanese shares also fell, with the benchmark Nikkei average down 1.8 percent, making some speculate this could temper the dollar's fall as the market might become cautious of Japanese yen-selling intervention.

A falling share market is seen as one of the conditions which could prod Japanese authorities to intervene, after they did so in September to counter a push higher in the yen.

Others felt intervention was unlikely unless the dollar fell through 80.00 yen, but one trader expected option-related dollar buying could emerge around 80.00.

"There is also wariness about intervention, so I don't imagine that the dollar will suddenly break below 80.00," he said.

The dollar fell 0.6 percent to 80.53 yen and the euro dropped 0.7 percent to 112.05 yen.

The Australian dollar fell 0.6 percent to 78.72 yen but was steady at $0.9773. A trader in Australia reported selling in the yen crosses seemed to be coming out of Tokyo.

IT'S STILL THE FED

The main market focus remains what the Fed decides at its meeting on November2-3, with U.S. growth data later on Friday potentially feeding into the debate over how big Fed asset-buying should be this time around.

Due at 1230 GMT, the GDP report is expected to show the world's biggest economy grew 2.0 percent in the third quarter. While this would be too subdued to alter the expectation there will be further Fed stimulus, some dealers are nervous in case the data repeats a big upside surprise in UK GDP which sent sterling flying on reduced expectations of easing there.

Others, though, said the data was unlikely to give currencies new direction, with the mood swings of the past few sessions stemming from uncertainty about how big U.S. QE could be.

A New York Fed survey of dealers and investors included scenarios of up to $1 trillion, a figure larger than recent estimates, and analysts say possible scenarios include the Fed starting at $80 billion to $100 billion a month but leaving itself the option to do more.

"We think $500 billion over six months but they may not put a timeframe to it," said Robert Ryan, FX strategist at BNP Paribas in Singapore.

"At the end of the day, it may still end up being a trillion but the announcement will be something that allows them to say as long as it looks warranted they'll continue to do it - so the support and commitment is there."

The dollar has shed about 6 percent against major currencies in the past two months, and some analysts say it's due for a rally once the Fed reveals its easing plans.

Others say its performance against the euro at least will depend to some extent on how much emerging economies recycle dollar reserves generated by intervention into euros.

The euro slipped 0.2 percent to $1.3902. The dollar index, which tracks the greenback's performance against six major currencies, was steady at 77.333 after falling 1.1 percent on Thursday, its biggest one-day percentage fall for a week.

(Additional reporting by Hideyuki Sano and Yoko Matsudaira in Tokyo and Ian Chua in Sydney; Editing by Joseph Radford)