TOKYO, Nov 24 (Reuters) -

Japan's Nikkei share average stopped short of a fresh three-decade high on Friday, although it posted a fourth straight weekly gain as a weaker yen buoyed exporters' stocks.

The Nikkei ended up 0.5%, with a 0.12% gain for the week. It is up nearly 9% this month.

The broader Topix rose 0.54% on Friday.

The benchmark index on Monday scaled a post-1990 peak of 33,853.46, before sharply reversing course as investors locked in profit.

There were 164 advancers on the Nikkei index against 61 decliners among its 225 components.

The yen traded flat at 149.25 per dollar, hovering around the same level for a third day. The unit strengthened on Tuesday to a more than two-month high of 147.155 as expectations for a more dovish Federal Reserve undercut the U.S. currency.

A weaker yen increases the value of Japan's overseas sales when repatriated.

There were strong expectations for the yen to strengthen to 145 per dollar, but that speculation has come out of the market now, boosting automakers and other exporters, said Kazuo Kamitani, an equity strategist at Nomura Securities.

"The overheatedness has come out of the market, which means we can expect the Nikkei to set new highs next week."

The stocks that gained the most among the top 30 core Topix names were Toyota Motor Corp, up 2.73%, followed by Recruit Holdings Co Ltd.

The underperformers among the Topix 30 were Daikin Industries Ltd down 2.4%, followed by Sony Group Corp losing 1.27%.

Startup investor SoftBank Group added 0.48%, buoyed by a more than 5% rally in one of its key holdings - chip designer ARM.

Japanese stocks received foreign inflows for a third week in the week ended Nov. 17, driven by domestic companies' strong earnings and easing worries about higher U.S. interest rates following softer inflation data.

(Reporting by Kevin Buckland; Editing by Sohini Goswami)