No financial details were given about the transaction. The switching system is for use in the western and central parts of the country. J-Phone, which is controlled by Japan Telecom and British telecommunications group Vodafone, has 10 million clients and more than 7.5 million users of its mobile Internet service. The company expects to introduce its third-generation mobile telephone services in 2002 in Japan. NTT DoCoMo expects to sell 4.5 cellphones for every Japanese in 2010 Japan's top mobile firm NTT DoCoMo Inc. said Thursday it had revised up domestic demand for mobile telephones to 570 million units in 2010, equivalent to four and a half handsets per head of the country's population.
Most individuals are unlikely to be walking around with four or five separate mobile phones however.
The robust projection for demand is accounted for by a variety of applications and appliances incorporating mobile phones including TV sets and digital cameras to use mobile telephones, the spokesman said. Japan's population stands at 126.9 million, according to the latest census released by the Management and Coordination Agency. About 700,000 posters of the prime minister have been sold through the shop and via mail order. A nation-wide survey by the metropolitan daily Tokyo Shimbun carried out at the weekend showed that support for Koizumi was at a stunning 89 percent. The prime minister has vowed to rebuild Japan's economy after a decade of economic stagnation by introducing sweeping reforms.