TOKYO — Yahoo Japan Corp. and eBay Inc. agreed yesterday to team up in online auctions, planning services for next year that will make it easier for consumers to buy things over the Internet from the U.S. and Japan.

The move marks a return to Japan of eBay, which pulled out of the market in 2002, never able to compete against the domination of Yahoo here.

Yahoo said by March, Japanese will be able to bid for items up for sale on eBay through the Yahoo auction site in Japan. By the middle of next year, similarly, a site will be set up that will allow Americans to buy Yahoo Japan auction items through the eBay site.

The deal will facilitate "cross-border trading" and invigorate the online auction market, Yahoo said in a statement. In online auctions, consumers put up items they want to sell and get offers through the Internet from prospective buyers.

"We are excited to partner with Yahoo Japan in providing Japanese users with localized site designed to enable them to shop on the eBay marketplace with ease and convenience," eBay Chief Executive Meg Whitman said in a statement.

EBay and Yahoo Japan — collaborating for the first time — also launched a separate Web site called Sekaimon, which means "global shopping" in Japanese.

The online Sekaimon site will translate items listed on eBay into Japanese and help with payments, shipping and customs clearance for Japanese shoppers, both sides said. Revenue from Sekaimon will be shared, they said, while not disclosing the terms.

Under the collaboration, Americans using eBay will be able to more easily buy Japanese goods popular abroad, such as "manga" comic books, CDs and products that feature Japanese animation characters and other mascots, it said.

Also, some products are cheaper online abroad than in Japan, and consumers will be able to compare prices for the best deals.

Last year, Internet powerhouses Yahoo and eBay announced a wide-ranging alliance in the U.S., helping define the battle lines against rivals Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. and AOL. Yahoo and eBay said they will draw upon each other's strengths in online advertising, payments and communications. Since then, they have collaborated in advertising, online payments and other areas outside of Japan.

Yahoo Japan has more than 15 million auction items listed on any given day, while eBay, the world's biggest online auction site, boasts 248 million registered users.

Yahoo Japan is 41 percent owned by Japanese mobile carrier and broadband services company Softbank Corp. and 33 percent owned by Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo Inc.

The online auction markets in both countries are growing, Yahoo said. In Japan, it's up about 27 percent from a year ago to an estimated $36.4 billion, and in the U.S., it's up 21 percent to more than $172 billion.

Although Japanese already can shop online on overseas sites, and vice versa, the agreement will make it easier by bridging language and other barriers.

Lorrie Norrington, head of eBay's international operations, said the deal may be expanded in the future to other businesses. Besides the online auction, eBay owns the PayPal online settlement service and Skype, an online telephony service.

Yahoo Japan President Masahiro Inoue said the companies may pursue a capital tie-up, although yesterday's deal doesn't involve such mutual investments.

"We will diligently work together to create a new auction experience for Japanese consumers while ensuring that we provide a healthy and secure online experience," Inoue said.

The 2002 withdrawal from Japan was a rare defeat for San Jose, Calif.-based eBay, which entered the Japanese market in 2000. But it had just 25,000 items listed for sale. At that time, eBay said it hoped to return to the world's second-largest retail market when the timing was right.

That's a reversal from eBay's domination elsewhere. Yahoo closed its online auction service for North America earlier this year, after nearly nine years.