Japan’s Regional Areas Vie to Become Data Center Hubs Tokyo, Oct. 29 (Jiji Press)–Data center construction in Japan is spreading to regional areas, with the prefectures of Hokkaido and Akita emerging as possible hubs. Securing large tracts of land and obtaining access to sufficient electricity are easier in regional areas than in urban locations. Local governments in regional areas are stepping up efforts to attract operators, and the central government is also promoting the shift away from urban centers. Abundant Electricity Construction is underway on the country’s biggest data center for artificial intelligence applications at an industrial park in the northeastern city of Akita. The facility aims to begin operation in 2030 or later. The project is spearheaded by a server management company based in the city and a U.S. startup, which plan to raise money from financial institutions and investment funds in Japan and abroad. A sovereign wealth fund from the United Arab Emirates has already expressed interest. Data centers require enormous amounts of electricity to operate. Akita has abundant renewable energy sources, including offshore wind farms being developed off the prefecture’s coast, and the area is home to a former thermal power plant operated by Tohoku Electric Power Co. Akita Mayor Jun Numaya promotes his city as an attractive location for data center operators, saying they can begin operations quickly by utilizing existing power transmission infrastructure. The Hokkaido city of Ishikari has long sought to host data centers powered by renewable energy. In July, the city established a consortium with 11 companies, including NTT East Inc., a telecommunications firm, and Sakura Internet Inc., a cloud and data center provider. Positioning data centers as a “computing resource for the region,” the consortium aims to strengthen disaster preparedness, train engineers and bolster the area’s electricity infrastructure, including wind and solar power generation, as well as its telecommunications infrastructure. Hokkaido is also home to the so-called Hokkaido Valley initiative, which aims to gather semiconductor-related businesses in areas around the city of Chitose, where Rapidus Corp. plans to mass-produce advanced semiconductors. In the city of Tomakomai, SoftBank Corp., a telecommunications firm, plans to open a new data center this fiscal year. Resolving Latency with Optical Tech Akita, Ishikari and Tomakomai were selected in September as so-called green transformation strategy areas by the central government, paving the way for state support for the development of electricity infrastructure. The Akita prefectural and city governments have already received numerous inquiries about potential data center sites. “We can feel that interest in the area is growing,” a city official said. Developing telecommunications infrastructure is a major challenge to setting up data centers in regional areas. Tests using optical technology are being conducted to reduce latency, or delays in data transmission, over long distances. NTT Inc.’s IOWN next-generation telecommunication infrastructure is a leading example of such technology. IOWN enables high-capacity, high-speed data transmission with low latency over long distances by using optical signals instead of conventional electrical signals. The Japanese government is supporting efforts to bring the technology into practical use. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
