Facing the imminent withdrawal from the US market, California-based Walt Disney plans to launch its mobile phone service in Japan in conjunction with SoftBank, according to a Bloomberg report.

Disney will lease SoftBank's mobile network to launch the service named Disney Mobile, making Disney the first MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) in Japan. Although details on subscriber targets and tariff plans have not been disclosed yet, Disney is expected to cooperate with SoftBank on mobile devices, services, content development, as well as marketing.

Disney Mobile is slated to commence service in spring 2008.