TOKYO - THE Wall Street Journal will launch a Japanese-language website by the end of the year, reaching out to more readers in Asia's biggest economy, its local partner SBI Holdings Inc said on Thursday.

It will be the second non-English website for the Journal, which is published by Dow Jones & Co., in addition to the Chinese version which began in 2002.

The venture, to be called Wall Street Journal Japan K.K., will be owned 60 per cent by Dow Jones and 40 per cent by SBI, a Japanese financial services provider, a statement said. -- AFP