Mitsui & Co. is expected to invest a total of 300 billion yen ($2.7 billion) by 2026 in the development of new data centers and plans to acquire existing facilities.
According to a report by Nikkei Asia, Mitsui will also partner with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board to launch an investment fund focused on data centre construction. The fund is expected to manage several hundreds of millions of dollars. A 50-50 joint venture will also be formed between the new fund and Fidelity Investments.
The joint venture will be operated by Colt Data Center Services, a Fidelity subsidiary.
Mitsui has joined forces with overseas investors to build three large facilities in three locations, including Kyoto and Chiba by 2026. The project is expected to cost 150 billion yen.
These developments come in the wake of a surge in technology adoption as a result of the restrictions placed due to the pandemic.Data centre penetration in Japan is largely concentrated in two regions- Tokyo and Osaka.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has committed to backing the development of key 5G network infrastructure.
Japan ranks third behind US and China, in terms of data centre penetration. It has a 6 per cent market share, according to Synergy Research Group.
The amount of data moving between the major internet providers in Japan increased more than 50% from a year ago, according to a November 2020 survey conducted by the ministry of internal affairs. In 2020, data centres in Japan had a total floor space of 350,000 square meters, according to IDC Japan. The research company expects floor space to increase to 1.24 million square meters, as companies such as Google and Microsoft aggressively expand.
Other companies also see Japan as strong destination to set up data centres. Recently, Singapore-based Princeton Digital Group (PDG) today announced its plan to build one of the largest hyperscale facilities in Tokyo, Japan, with a total investment value of USD 1 Billion.
Read: https://w.media/princeton-digital-group-invest-us1b-to-built-100-mw-data-center-campus-in-japan/
