* Strong yen trend weighs
* Reports of Takefuji bankruptcy prep hit consumer lenders
* Takefuji impact mainly limited to sector - analysts
By Elaine Lies
TOKYO, Sept 27 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei average rose 1.4 percent on Monday, buoyed by exporters after Wall Street jumped on a rebound in U.S. business spending, but gains were capped by the yen's continued strength.
Shares of consumer lenders plunged after media said struggling Takefuji Corp is making final preparations to file for bankruptcy protection from creditors, crippled by the reimbursement of overcharged interest.
U.S. durable goods orders for August rose 2 percent excluding transportation, after sliding 2.8 percent in July, but a decline in aircraft and motor vehicle bookings depressed overall orders 1.3 percent.
A gauge of business spending plans, though, rebounded 4.1 percent after falling 5.3 percent in July, enough to push all major indexes up roughly 2 percent or more.
"The Nikkei is inevitably up given the breadth of the U.S. market gains, but lagging -- and that's due to the continuing strength of the yen," said Toshiyuki Kanayama, a market analyst with Monex Inc.
"We don't know for sure if there was intervention last Friday or not, but the dollar hasn't been able to hang onto the gains it made then, and that's weighing on the stock market now."
The dollar edged up against the yen to 84.27 yen after hitting on Friday its lowest in more than a week against the yen despite talk Japan had tried again to intervene to weaken the currency.
The benchmark Nikkei rose 134.58 points to 9,606.25 by midmorning, set for its biggest monthly gain since March with a rise of some 8.5 percent. But it is up only some 2 percent on the quarter.
The broader Topix climbed 1 percent to 846.80.
Market players were sceptical about the strength of Friday's Wall Street rebound, noting that trade in New York was thin and that much of the rise appeared to be short-covering after losses earlier in the week.
"Wall Street's rise has provided a bit of a boost but gains on the U.S. data are mainly because the figures weren't quite as bad as expected, not that they were really good. So gains on this alone will be limited," said Takashi Ushio, head of the investment strategy division at Marusan Securities.
CONSUMER LENDER LOSSES
Consumer lenders tanked after the reports emerged about Takefuji, with Tokyo Shoko Research saying that the company has $5.2 billion in liabilities as of the end of June.
An official in Takefuji's finance division said the company was checking on the media reports and declined to comment further.
Analysts have warned that Takefuji could struggle to survive given that it does not have the financial backing of a major bank like competitors Acom Co and Promise Co.
But market players, noting that the industry has been struggling for some time, said the news would not raise broader fears of financial instability or seriously affect the Nikkei as a whole.
"There's definitely a big impact on the sector but otherwise, the market's known for a long time that the sector is struggling and that's caused things to be mostly factored in," said Hiroaki Osakabe, fund manager at Chibagin Asset Management.
Acom lost 11 percent to 1,329 yen and fellow consumer lender Aiful plunged 22.6 percent to 89 yen. Takefuji was untraded, overwhelmed with sell orders, with the price indicated at 121 yen -- a fall of 29 percent from Friday's close.
But exporters climbed broadly, boosted by the Wall Street rise, with Canon inc gaining 2.4 percent to 3,885 yen and Honda Motor Co up 2.7 percent at 3,010 yen.
Mitsui & Co and other commodities-linked firms rose after metals gained broadly on Friday, when oil rose strongly as well.
Mitsui & Co gained 2.9 percent to 1,242 yen and Mitsubishi Corp rose 2.9 percent to 1,970 yen.