TOKYO — Japanese mobile carrier SoftBank Corp. said yesterday it has a deal with Apple Inc. to start selling the iPhone later this year — the first such agreement in Japan for the hit cell phone.

Also yesterday, Spain's largest phone company, Telefonica S.A., announced it will start selling the iPhone later this year.

SoftBank spokesman Naoki Nakayama said no further details, such as pricing and dates, were available, and he said it's not clear if the deal is exclusive.

The addition of the iPhone to SoftBank's lineup in this intensely competitive mobile market is almost sure to be a plus for the company. Gadget-loving Japan is already a big market for another popular mobile Apple product, the iPod music player.

Tokyo-based SoftBank has 18.77 million subscribers in Japan but lags in third place behind NTT DoCoMo and KDDI Corp. In recent years, it has been aggressively expanding by offering cheaper services and running catchy TV ads featuring actress Cameron Diaz.

The signings with SoftBank and Telefonica S.A. are the latest for Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple, which has inked other deals recently with wireless carriers in Europe and South America in the hope of expanding sales there.

As of the end of March, Apple sold 5.4 million iPhones globally, and was struggling to keep up with demand.

Initially Apple insisted on exclusive sales deals for iPhone within each given country, but it has begun to break from that pattern.

The company plans further expansion through a partnership with Mexico City-based America Movil, which boasts 159.2 million subscribers in 16 countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico.

Japan boasts some of the world's most sophisticated cell phones, which can be used for watching digital TV broadcasts, taking digital photos, doing restaurant searches, e-mail, electronic payments, reading digital novels and music downloads.

SoftBank, which bought British cellular giant Vodafone Group PLC's struggling Japanese mobile operations in 2006, owns a stake in Yahoo Inc. and offers broadband service in Japan.