The Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications announced today that Wireless Broadband Planning K.K. (WBPK), a joint venture formed in September with investments from KDDI, Intel Capital and other companies, is one of the recipients of two 2.5 GHz frequency licenses in Japan. WBPK aims to offer a wide range services over the mobile WiMAX network it intends to build, with initial offering expected in 2009. Read the Associated Press story here. Japan joins a number of other countries where mobile WiMAX networks will be deployed in the next couple of years, including the U.S. and also Russia, where Comstar and Intel recently announced a collaboration to build a mobile WiMAX network in Moscow by the end of 2008.