News Corp.'s plan to bring MySpace to the world continues as a Japanese version of the wildly popular social-networking site is set to launch soon.

News Corp. is teaming with Japanese technology investment group Softbank for the launch, the Financial Times reports. MySpace's main competition in the Japanese social-networking space will be Mixi, an invitation-only site that is the country's most popular social-networking site, with an estimated 5.7 million users. Mixi's stock fell 7 percent Monday on the news.

MySpace Japan is expected to target mobile phone users in addition to Japan's growing online population, as younger users are spending an increasing amount of time networking both on the internet and on their mobile phones.

While MySpace continues to expand globally, the problem it faces is the ability to quickly customize its offerings to suit local tastes. The model that works for users in the United States isn't always the incarnation that will appeal to users in other countries. Also, MySpace will likely need to become popular with local bands in each country to fuel the popularity in music offerings that it enjoys in the U.S.