* Dollar rebounds vs yen after hitting fresh 5-week low
* Dollar up 0.4% vs yen on Japan investor buying
* Aussie under pressure before RBA rate decision
By Kaori Kaneko
TOKYO, Dec 2 (Reuters) - The dollar rebounded against the yen on Tuesday after touching a five-week low, getting a boost from buying by Japanese investors.
The yen slipped against the dollar and euro even though the Nikkei share average fell 4.6 percent as Asian shares followed U.S. shares down.
But market players said the slide in global stock markets and recent data underscoring the weakness of economic fundamentals worldwide were likely to keep risk appetite low and limit falls in the Japanese currency.
"Investors covered their short positions accumulated since last week. But they basically remain risk-averse and there is a possibility that the yen will resume its rally if U.S. stocks continue to fall," said Kwanga-ja Kim, deputy general manager at Shinsei Bank.
Moves in equities are seen as a barometer of investor risk appetite, and stock falls can lead to the unwinding of carry trades, in which investors sell low-yielding currencies like the yen to invest in higher-yielding currencies and assets.
"The weak U.S. manufacturing data coupled with comments by the Fed chairman gave investors no choice but to increase risk aversion," said Yuji Saito, head of FX sales department at Societe Generale.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke Monday urged decisive action to protect the U.S. economy and said the central bank had alternative tools it could use as interest rates approach zero.
The yen initially climbed against the dollar and euro in Asian trade, but it then fell back on yen-selling by various Japanese players including brokerage houses and an institutional investor, market players said.
The dollar rose 0.4 percent from late U.S. trading on Monday to 93.65 yen.
The dollar earlier fell to a five-week low of 92.87 yen on trading platform EBS, exactly 2 yen above the dollar's 13-year low of 90.87 yen hit in late October.
The euro rose 0.7 percent to 118.36 yen. Against the dollar, the single European currency rose 0.3 percent to $1.2642.
Economic indicators released on Monday reinforced the bleak outlook for the global economy.
Manufacturing data in the United States fell in November to its weakest since the 1981-1982 recession.
The euro zone and Chinese manufacturing activity also deteriorated.
Market players were awaiting a rate decision by the Reserve Bank of Australia later on Tuesday.
The Australian dollar fell 0.5 percent to $0.6378, with analysts expecting the Australian central bank to cut interest rates by 75 basis points to a five-year low of 4.5 percent.
The Japanese currency is likely to remain relatively strong as other major central banks are expected to slash rates this week, eroding the yield advantage of their currencies over the low-yielding yen.
The Bank of England, the European Central Bank and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand will hold monetary policy meetings.
Saito of Societe Generale said that the yen is likely to rise against higher-yielding currencies and the dollar could slip towards 90.87 yen, led by rate cuts and an expected deterioration in U.S. jobs data later this week.
(Additional reporting by Satomi Noguchi, Masayuki Kitano; editing by Sophie Hardach)