China's Baidu starts Japanese search engine (AFP)

TOKYO (AFP) - Search engine Baidu.com, which has risen rapidly as Internet use expands in China, launched a Japanese-language site on Wednesday.

But Chinas leading search engine could face tough competition in Japan, where Internet use is already widespread. Yahoo dominates Japans search engine market, trailed by Google.

Robin Li, Baidus chairman and chief executive, told a press conference that the company had taken measures to ensure legal compliance in Japan including over copyrights, a frequent concern developed economies raise with China.

"We are very excited to officially enter the Japanese search market," Li said.

He said that Baidus expertise in the Chinese language, whose characters are also used in Japanese, would help with the launch of the new site at www.baidu.jp.

"Given the success we have already encountered after nearly one year of testing our beta site, we are confident that we can provide a high quality Japanese-language search engine," Li said.