Japan’s biggest mobile phone operator, NTT DoCoMo will partner with Google to provide a search service and other applications from Google on its i-mode portal, according to Nikkei Business Daily, and reported by AFP.

NTT DoCoMo is said to have chosen to partner with Google because its customers are demanding more Internet functions on their cell phones.

Google is still far behind Yahoo in Japan’s search engine market. With this partnership with NTT DoCoMo, which has more than 50 million customers, Google will be able to gain some market share in the mobile search segment.