TOKYO, Jan 19 The yen was mired near a four-year low against the dollar on Friday, a day

TOKYO, Jan 19 (Reuters) The yen was mired near a four-year low against the dollar on Friday, a day after the Bank of Japan's decision to stand pat on interest rates sparked a broad sell-off in the low-yielding Japanese currency.

The BOJ's vote to hold rates at 0.25 percent marked an abrupt shift in expectations and suggested that BOJ's path towards normalising interest rates from zero will take even longer as the economy's expansion has turned patchy.

With rates so much higher for other major currencies, the yen has suffered as investors use it to fund purchases of higher-yielding currencies in the carry trade and as Japanese households also flock to foreign assets for better returns.

The yen hit a new nine-year low against the Australian dollar and was stuck close to an eight-year low against the pound, as currencies where interest rates are steep or set to rise further continue to be the winners among yield-starved market players.

''Bigger picture, the yen is going to weaken against everything,'' said one senior trader at a European investment bank in Tokyo.

The dollar was little changed from late New York trade near 121.25 yen just below Thursday's peak of 121.60 yen on electronic trading platform EBS -- its strongest since March 2003.

The euro climbed to 157.25 yen from 157.15 yen and was pushing back towards the all-time high of 158.06 yen struck earlier in the month.

The euro was little changed near $1.2965 shaking off losses the previous session after another array of upbeat U.S. economic data suggested that the Federal Reserve would be in no rush to trim interest rates from 5.25 percent for a while yet.

Fed Board Governor Susan Bies said late on Thursday that inflation appears poised to decelerate but that a decline is not assured.

Expectations the BOJ would likely push forward with a rate increase at its next meeting in February to a decade-high of 0.5 percent offered little relief to the yen.

A Reuters poll on Thursday after the BOJ meeting found 32 of 45 traders and analysts in the Tokyo bond and foreign exchange markets expected a BOJ move in February after three board members dissented in favour of a hike this week.

Highlighting the hunger for higher yields in Japan, data this week showed foreign assets held by Japanese mutual funds, or investment trusts, surged by 1.407 trillion yen ($11.6 billion) in December -- the biggest one-month rise in 17 years of records.

($1=121.23 Yen) REUTERS PKS BST0732