TOKYO, Mar. 23 (AP) -- Asia Media Co., a Beijing-based provider of TV program guides, will next month become the first company from mainland China to launch an intial public offering in Japan, officials said Friday.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange approved the company to list its shares on the so-called Mothers market for emerging companies Thursday and the shares will debut on April 26, according to TSE spokesman Satoshi Futaki.

This is the first time a company based in mainland China will go public on a Japanese stock market, he said.

Asia Media plans to make an initial public offering of 4.7 million new shares, another TSE spokesman Toru Onoda said. The company is not listed in China or any other market, he said.

The company will use proceeds from the listing to expand its operations in China, and will most likely expand into Japan as well, Japan's business daily Nikkei reported Thursday.

The listing may set a precedent for other Chinese companies to list on stock exchanges in Japan as retail investors in Japan begin to aggressively buy Chinese and other Asian stocks, the report said.