The US dollar was softer against the yen, reversing the trend earlier in the day, and was flat against the euro in afternoon trade here following dovish comments by Bank of Japan governor Toshihiko Fukui, and after yesterday's Thai debacle briefly shocked regional markets, dealers said. At 3.10 pm here, the US dollar was trading at 118.09 yen, down from 118.13 in Sydney trading about three-and-a-half hours earlier, while the euro was at 1.3235 usd, up from 1.3234 in Sydney trade. Dealers said market players have been paring back expectations that the BoJ may raise rates early next year after Fukui told a news conference yesterday that he cannot say that all details of economic and price developments were in line with the BOJ's semi-annual outlook released at end-October, particularly before the board discusses an update to the outlook at the next policy-setting meeting on Jan 17-18. "But the likelihood of a rate hike at its next meeting in January has diminished, with rhetoric out of the central bank now less hawkish," analysts at DBS Bank noted in a report. Asian currencies were relatively steady earlier this afternoon after yesterday's shock move by Thailand to require foreign investors to lock up 30 pct of new foreign exchange deposits for a year, except those related to exports.