TOKYO, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Japan's new top financial diplomat, in his first public comment since taking up the job last month, stuck to the finance ministry's standard line on currencies on Friday as the yen surged towards a 14-month peak against the dollar.

"As always we are watching currency markers carefully. We will not comment on specific levels," Naoyuki Shinohara, vice finance minister for international affairs, told reporters as he arrived at work in the morning.

The yen leapt in volatile trade on Thursday as investors unwound risky trades financed by using the Japanese currency to buy high-yielding assets, on fears of a global markets shake-out.

The dollar was near 113.40 yen at 0200 GMT on Friday, after having slid to a low of around 112 yen on Thursday, the lowest since June 2006.

The yen's rapid movement prompting some traders to speculate that Japanese authorities could intervene in the market, but any imminent move was still seen unlikely.

"I think there is zero possibility for intervention," said Toru Umemoto, chief forex strategist Japan, at Barclays Capital in Tokyo. "Policymakers still need to see how this will affect the economy.

"Plus, Japan has not intervened in the market and that has been praised by the United States, while global leaders have called on China to stay out of the market ... If they intervened now, it will only cause abnormal moves," Umemoto added.

Japan has a history of intervening in the currency market to prevent the yen's rise from hurting the country's economy. During its last intervention campaign, it sold 35 trillion yen ($306 billion) in a 15-month period to March 2004.

But it has stayed out of the market since, even when the dollar fell as low as 101 yen in 2005, the longest Tokyo has gone without intervening on current records dating back to 1991.

Officials at Ministry of Finance (MOF), which is in charge of the nation's currency policy, usually change their terminology on currencies when they want to send signals to the markets.

When intervening in the market several years ago, MOF officials used to step up their rhetoric, often saying that they would "take appropriate action on currencies as needed".

Shinohara replaced Hiroshi Watanabe in July and now takes charge of the ministry's currency policy, working directly with Finance Minister Koji Omi.