HTC announced Friday a smartphone designed specifically for the Japanese market, compatible with the country's TV broadcasts for mobiles, touch payment system, and decorative emails.

Train passengers will soon be able to use their mobile phones on the city's subways.

Japan's three biggest mobile phone companies said Wednesday they will adopt international standards for touch payment systems, expanding beyond the current implementation by Sony.

Japanese mobile game platform operator Gree said Monday it has sued rival DeNA for obstructing game developers that try to launch games on both of their platforms.

KDDI, Japan's second-largest mobile operator, on Monday announced a new range of smartphones, accompanying services, and a low-cost pricing plan, but stayed mum on whether it would offer Apple's new iPhone next year.

KDDI, which runs Japan's second-largest mobile carrier, will offer the iPhone 5 from early 2012, ending Softbank's monopoly of the device in Japan, the country's largest business newspaper reported Thursday.

The first smartphone based on the new "Mango" edition of Microsoft's Windows Phone platform was unveiled on Wednesday in Tokyo.

Japan's KDDI is installing more than 100,000 Wi-Fi hotspots that smartphone users will be connected to automatically for data services, offloading traffic from KDDI's cellular network.