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TOKYO, May 29 (Reuters) The dollar dipped against the yen on Monday as selling from Japanese exporters dominated trading ahead of market holidays in both the United States and the United Kingdom.

''I think buy-backs in the dollar will continue for a while...

but today we are likely to see some selling from Japanese exporters, which will cap the dollar,'' said a trader at a Japanese bank.

In early Tokyo trade, the dollar slipped to 112.35 yen from around 112.70 yen in late U.S. trade on Friday.

The euro was little changed around $1.2740. It eased to 143.20 yen from around 143.55 yen.

The U.S. currency rose last week as speculators unwound dollar-selling positions they had made on a view that Washington might seek, or at least accept, a weaker dollar to help reduce the U.S. current account deficit.

U.S. media reported during the weekend that President George W. Bush was leaning towards having his old friend and the former Commerce Department Secretary Don Evans take over the Treasury.

Republican sources said the current chief, John Snow, is likely to step down next month.

''Evans is likely to put pressure on Asian currencies to rise against the dollar,'' said analysts at JPMorgan Chase Bank in a report to clients.

The yen showed little response to Japanese retail sales data that landed on Monday. Sales fell 0.6 percent in April from a year earlier, compared with economists' forecast for sales to drop 0.5 percent.

REUTERS VJ RN0623