NTT DoCoMo, which dominates Japan’s mobile phone market, follows a somewhat unusual international expansion strategy. Its strategy is to take minority stakes rather than full control in a foreign mobile operator. The reason is that it prefers to acquire stakes up to a level that allows it to participate in management but respect the local company’s autonomy. DoCoMo claims that it can provide valuable technology expertise in mobile multimedia and 3G to its partners. Assess DoCoMo’s expansion strategy.