Is Yahoo Japan in over its head, now that it’s teamed up with Google? Not hardly, but that hasn’t stopped speculation about long-term motives around the deal. The seemingly unholy alliance was already cleared by Japan’s FTC, though questions are now being raised as to whether or not the Commission should launch a deeper investigation into the matter.

For the time being, Tokyo’s FTC is defending its position on the Yahoo Japan-Google deal, stating that the two companies will continue to operate independently. Yet with Google’s global influence and ongoing investigations for privacy practices, some think that the partnership with Yahoo Japan will make Google far too powerful.

After admitting that its StreetViews data collection methods took private information, several joined together to bring a massive lawsuit against the search engine giant. Over 30 U.S. states have taken up the charge, while the European Union’s investigation increases stamina and support.

Keio University law professor Jiro Tamura is referenced at the Wall Street Journal:

Japan’s FTC may not fully grasp the new characteristics of the search business, whereby search engines improve as they process more queries. By controlling over 90% of the search queries in Japan, Mr. Tamura argues, Google’s search engine will become increasingly better than rival services over time.

Isn’t that how Google got to where it is today? Thanks again, Yahoo.

“I don’t know if the FTC has correctly understood what lies ahead with this collaboration,” Mr. Tamura goes on. WSJ notes him as an expert in antimonopoly law.

Indeed, Google’s global efforts are what most companies in its space are after, and Yahoo Japan’s controlling stakeholder Softbank is no exception. Softbank powers a large portion of the Internet and wireless services in Japan, giving it its own areas of dominance as a result of the Google deal as well.

The rising concerns do highlight the matter of consumer data storage and ownership; a question that will be brought up time and again as cloud computing and shared networks are connected, accessed and powered by search portals. The self-regulation of corporations like Google, at least when it comes to consumer data rights, is something the FTC cannot yet micromanage. IBM’s mainframe and business practices have also been questioned by the EU this week.