The Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) in Japan has recently proposed a subsidy programme to support the establishment of data centers in Hokkaido and Kyushu.
Hokkaido, located in the northernmost region of Japan, and Kyushu, located in the southwestern region of Japan, have been recognized as ideal sites for data centers due to their abundant renewable energy sources, according to local reports.
These areas are reported to have significant power generation capacity, making it ideal locations for accommodating data centers that consume substantial amounts of electricity.
The primary objective of the subsidy plan is to encourage the decentralization of data centers across Japan. More than 80 percent of these facilities are concentrated in the Tokyo and Osaka metropolitan areas.
In recent developments in Japan, CyrusOne collaborated with Kansai Electric Power Company (KEPCO) to develop data centers in the country with the ambitious goal of reaching a business scale of 900 MW.
Japan’s Softbank Corp this week announced a partnership with NVIDIA on a platform for generative artificial intelligence and 5G/6G applications that Softbank aims to introduce at their new AI data centers in Japan.
In Q1 of 2023, various data center players have announced their plans to build and expand their portfolio in the country. Stack Infrastructure constructed a 36MW data center campus located in Inzai as part of its plans to expand its portfolio in Japan, launching a deep commitment to future investments in the APAC region.
OPTAGE announced plans to build its fifth data center in Osaka and MC Digital Realty, a 50/50 joint venture between Mitsubishi Corporation and Digital Realty, also announced the official opening of its fourth building on its Osaka data center campus.
