* Strong U.S. jobs report boosts risk appetite, hurts yen

* Upbeat China trade data also lifts mood

* Nikkei up 50 pct year to date

* Nikkei heads for best yearly gain since 1972

By Dominic Lau

TOKYO, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei stock average

climbed as much as 2 percent on Monday morning, buoyed by a

slide in the yen after an upbeat U.S. jobs report raised

expectations the Federal Reserve will soon begin unwinding its

stimulus.

Declines in the yen tend to boost sentiment towards Japanese

equities because investors expect the weaker currency will

inflate overseas earnings for exporters, such as Toyota Motor

Corp, Sony Corp and Panasonic Corp.

Toyota, the fourth-most traded stock on the main board, was

up 1.3 percent. Mazda Motor Corp, the fifth-most

traded, gained 3 percent, while Panasonic advanced 1.5 percent.

Index heavyweight SoftBank Corp, the most traded,

climbed 2 percent to a 13-1/2 year high on the back of the

upbeat market sentiment.

The Nikkei was up 292.49 points, or 1.9 percent, at

15,592.35 by midmorning after trading as high as 15,610.35. The

yen was down 0.1 percent at 103.06 to the dollar, adding

to Friday's 1.1 percent slide and edging closer to a six-month

low of 103.38 yen touched last week.

"There isn't much of domestic catalyst out there in the near

term. The next major catalyst is whether the Bank of Japan is

going to ease again in the first quarter of next year and also

corporate earnings commencing in another eight weeks' time,"

said a senior trader at a European bank in Tokyo.

"Ahead of that there is very little meat on the bone in

terms of domestic factor that is going to drive the market. It's

the currency more than anything else."

Retail investors were piling into social gaming network

related stocks, the trader said, with Adways Inc, Mixi

Inc, Gree Inc and DeNA Co Ltd up

between 2.5 and 15.2 percent.

Monday's gain took the Nikkei above its five-day moving

average of 15,446.01 and close to a six-month intraday high of

15,794.15 reached last week.

U.S. employers added 203,000 jobs last month and the jobless

rate hit a five-year low of 7.0 percent, raising the chance that

the Fed could cut back on its $85 billion-a-month bond-buying

campaign as soon as this month. These expectations are boosting

the dollar against the Japanese currency.

Meanwhile, strong Chinese exports data added further

evidence of stabilisation in the world's second-largest economy,

also boosting risk sentiment in the region.

The broader Topix index climbed 1.5 percent to

1,254.76, with volume at 25 percent of the full daily average

for the past 90 trading days.

Adding Monday's rally, the benchmark Nikkei is up 50 percent

this year, heading for its best yearly gain since 1972. Japanese

stocks has been driven by the yen's weakness on the back of

Tokyo's aggressive fiscal and monetary stimulus.