Vodafone K.K. said it will launch a new service Thursday that enables its mobile phone users to exchange e-mail with photo and video data with overseas users who have compatible handsets on participating networks.

It will be the first time such a service has been offered in Japan, the subsidiary of British wireless giant Vodafone Group PLC said Thursday.

The company said its customers in Japan can send multimedia messages overseas by directly entering phone numbers with the Global Mail prefix and a country code.

The new service, called Global Mail, is scheduled to begin with participating networks in Spain and Hong Kong initially, but the number of compatible overseas networks will be expanded in the future, the company said.