Rakuten Inc. got the green light Friday from a government panel to become the nation's fourth major wireless carrier, granting the e-commerce giant access to a fierce competition for subscribers alongside industry heavyweights who have long dominated the cellular market.

An Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry advisory board approved Rakuten's application for a 4G mobile license, which the company had submitted in February. The decision is expected to be formally endorsed by the ministry at a later date, marking the first time a new entrant has been approved since eAccess — now a part of SoftBank Group Corp. — was granted bandwidth 13 years ago.

The move threatens to disrupt Japan's mobile phone market oligopoly of NTT Docomo Inc., KDDI Corp. and SoftBank Corp., the last of the three being the domestic arm of tech mogul Masayoshi Son's global telecommunications and internet empire.