The Japanese antitrust regulator on Thursday gave its approval to the alliance of the search engine Yahoo Japan and Google, a link that has been criticized by competitors. Yahoo Japan, the leading Internet portal in the country, had said in July that adopt the Google search engine, which would give the two companies control almost all Japanese search market.

The initiative was fueled criticism from rivals like Microsoft and national online provider Rakuten, citing the risk of unfair competition. The Fair Trade Commission gave its approval to the alliance on Thursday but said it would continue to monitor the progress of the agreement for any possible violation of antitrust laws. Analysts had expected the deal to go ahead and Yahoo Japan said in July that regulators had confirmed the deal would not violate antitrust law. Yahoo Japan's initiative came unexpectedly, as it was expected to follow in the footsteps of Yahoo by choosing Microsoft as a partner.