A group of residents in Tokyo said on Wednesday they were aiming to block construction of a massive logistics and data center planned by Singaporean developer GLP, in a worrying sign for businesses looking to Japan to meet growing demand.
The petition by more than 220 residents of Akishima city in western Tokyo follows a successful bid in December in Nagareyama city to quash a similar data-center plan.
The Akishima residents were concerned the center would threaten wildlife, cause pollution and a spike in electricity usage, and drain its water supply which comes solely from groundwater.
They filed a petition to audit the urban planning procedure that approved GLP's 3.63-million-megawatt data center, which GLP estimated would likely emit about 1.8 million tons of carbon dioxide a year.
"One company will be responsible for ruining Akishima. That's what this development is," Yuji Ohtake, a representative of the residents' group, told a press conference.
Global tech firms such as Microsoft, Amazon and Oracle also have plans to build data centers in Japan.
The residents estimated that 3,000 of 4,800 trees on the site would have to be cut down, threatening the area's Eurasian goshawk birds and badgers.
"It's an unbelievably negligent plan," said representative Hiroyuki Hasegawa.
The group was considering filing for arbitration to steer GLP toward reconsidering its plan, in which it is set to commence building in February, with completion by early 2029.
GLP declined to comment on the residents' action.
Japan's data center market is expected to grow 10.8% in 2027 and 7.6% in 2028 amid demand from digital transformation and cloud services, according to real estate services firm Jones Lang Lasalle.
In 2023, Japan saw a record 112 billion yen direct investment into data centre real estate, JLL's data showed.
Local opposition has also been growing over the construction of a data centre in Kashiwa city near Tokyo.
© (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2024.
35 Comments
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MarkX
Is it necessary to build these data centers in large cities? Why not move a little further out, into say Tochigi, or Yamagata, etc., where there is plenty of land, and I doubt any interference from the local communities.
sakurasuki
That's happen because, Japan only have lands near cities? There's so many empty space in Japan.
Moonraker
What's happening in Japan? After decades of covering the country in ugly, polluting and destructive buildings, cement, roads and factories there is suddenly some interest in preventing it. It's encouraging in some ways that people are waking up to the devastation that has been wrought but it is it that this is a foreign enterprise?
Laguna
We've got TSMC moving into Kumamoto with associated, similar problems, but at least its facilities will provide some 5,000 jobs. Data centers? - Nada.
Gaijinjland
The reason they don’t want to build in the country side is because the majority of data center engineers in Japan are outsourced entry level foreign kids doing racking & stacking on less than 300,000 yen a month. They’re not going to find these people in the middle of nowhere.
リッチ
rhey are built in areas with infrastructure the government puts in place for high speed lines. For a green data center power is handled in most cases as are impacts to the surroundings. A lot of nonsense on the residents. Power consumption would not affect them with government infra requirements. Seems more like complaining for no real reason other than it’s a foreign company doing it. If foreign investment isn’t wanted other cities are welcoming Osaka for one. The tokyo hub is becoming irrelevant outside of NTT and ATT/Sprint backbones. More upgrades are needed and foreign investment is needed to do it. Maybe they are happy with their 200mb download speed. lol. While most of my friends in singapore and Korea are more st 2gb
wallace
The average salary for a Data Center Technician in Japan is ¥5086824 in 2024.
The estimated total pay range for a Data Center Engineer at Amazon is ¥4.9M–¥5.4M per year, which includes base salary and additional pay.
The average Data Center Technician base salary at Microsoft is ¥6.5M per year.
garymalmgren
Didn't Tokyo just have an election?
Why wasn't this a bigger issue then?
obladi
If Tokyo residents don't want the business, Kansai will welcome it. There is plenty of green space in Japan for wildlife outside of the city.
wallace
There are no undersea cable landing stations in Kansai.
factchecker
After decades of covering the country in ugly, polluting and destructive buildings, cement, roads and factories there is suddenly some interest in preventing it. It's encouraging in some ways that people are waking up to the devastation that has been wrought but it is it that this is a foreign enterprise?
Most likely. They're quite happy with a paper mill belching out toxins that's right in front of a Japanese icon in Yoshiwara near Mt Fuji since it's Japanese. A foreign owned data centre in an urban wasteland, no!
Moonraker
Can't disagree with you, factchecker.
Alan Bogglesworth
Agree, it’s likely xenophobia. I’d be interested yo know what wild life this is going to destroy , it’s in Tokyo for the lords sake. I’ve never seen anything but cats, dogs and cockroaches in Tokyo ?
Peter Neil
employment numbers are always inflated. they include the construction people who are gone after completion.
most people should be savvy enough to know this. alway over promise to get permits and under deliver.
the average staffing at a data center is from 50 to 200, which is only google centers. maybe half are technicians, the rest of them are low paying clean up, stacking, loading and unloading trucks.
dagon
Hopefully a worst case scenario does not happen but that is Late Stage Capitalism.
https://datacentremagazine.com/articles/rogue-data-centres-may-need-to-be-destroyed-ai-researcher
David Brent
Don't make me laugh! Since when are the Japanese bothered about wildlife?! If this were a swanky condominium built by a Japanese developer, I guarantee you there would be no pushback from locals.
David Brent
5000 jobs mostly paying less than 280,000 gross per month. Isn't outsourcing and dispatch wonderful?
Seawolf
Seems we now see one positive aspect of the foreign yen:long-therm investment by Japanese and international companies. Of course the little consumer doesn't reap any benefits from this, same as from a rising Topix or whatever index...
TokyoOldMan
No one gave me the opportunity to complain… instead at night I can now watch the reflection upon opposite buildings of couples who leave their curtains open whilst yet copulate! Oh joy !
Gaijinjland
@Wallace
Those are the salaries of the dc engineers who are lucky enough to get direct employment. The vast majority of dc engineers are outsourced on a measly salary of 280,000 - 330,000 yen/ month. I should know, I’ve recruited a lot of them. But the candidates from SE Asia and the Middle East or Africa don’t really seem to mind… it gets them a foot in the door.
Sh1mon M4sada
Something fishy about approval processes here. Wouldn't, couldn't happen in Osaka or Kyoto, for obvious reasons, some noted by residents.
Daff idea too, data centres should be (as a minimum) located on independent energy and communication network for redundancy and security. Else hacked network will take out essential services as well.
Singaporean money is not exactly known for 'smart' or astute, it's a nation buikt entire iff of foreign capital.
Independent investigation by multiparty central government is necessary.
kurisupisu
What’s another massive heat generating in Tokyo going to do?
It’ll just add to the speed that hot air rises.
Just buy a better umbrella…
Clayton K. Char
A data center is the last thing you want in your neighborhood.
The demands on the electrical grid and the volume of water for cooling exceeds other types of businesses.
Avoid one like the plague.
tokyo_m
That's hilarious! Local residents where I live are forever demanding that trees be cut down or branches chopped off because they don't like leaves falling on their balconies or because they are afraid of insects. If only Tokyo people cared about nature! I wish!
Sh1mon M4sada
Bingo!
They should be no where near residential areas, they should be as close as possible to power source (eg nuke power station), and near the sea and forced to use desalanation for cooking needs. Common sense....
Officials who approved this need their heads read, or gift register scrutinised. Too fishy...
wallace
DATA Center map.
https://www.datacentermap.com/japan/
zibala
This isn't the average salary for entry level foreigners.
wallace
zibala
The average salary for a Data Center Technician in Japan is ¥5086824 in 2024.
I didn’t say it was.
deanzaZZR
Tokyo City had an election for governor. These outside Tokyo-to areas have mayors. The more you know ...
masterblaster
They'll never be able to stop this data center from being built. They'll never stop Google and Amazon and the other tech giants.
These data centers are the future.
zibala
This isn't the average salary for entry level foreigners.
Right-- I did.
Mat
wouldn't large investment like this by foreign companies be helpful for the plummeting value of the yen?
wallace
It would pay local taxes and business taxes.
Big
Exactly what I thought. Why now? Which leads me to a similar question, is it because it's a foreign enterprise? Answer: Most likely.
kohakuebisu
If this is natural forest then yes, its a concern.
If it is just planted conifers, then we should invite them to chop all 4800 down and replant a more diverse range of trees. Most lowland Japan and areas near cities, which should not be confused with "nature". Something like 12% of all Japanese forest consists of sugi trees and what little can grow below them.