Tokyo residents seek to block building of massive data center

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.

That's happen because, Japan only have lands near cities? There's so many empty space in Japan.

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?

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.

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.

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

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.

Didn't Tokyo just have an election?

Why wasn't this a bigger issue then?

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.

There are no undersea cable landing stations in Kansai.

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!

Can't disagree with you, factchecker.

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 ?

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.

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.

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

The Akishima residents were concerned the center would threaten wildlife

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.

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.

5000 jobs mostly paying less than 280,000 gross per month. Isn't outsourcing and dispatch wonderful?

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...

@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.

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.

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…

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.

The Akishima residents were concerned the center would threaten wildlife...

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!

The demands on the electrical grid and the volume of water for cooling exceeds other types of businesses.

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...

DATA Center map.

https://www.datacentermap.com/japan/

The average salary for a Data Center Technician in Japan is ¥5086824 in 2024.

This isn't the average salary for entry level foreigners.

zibala

The average salary for a Data Center Technician in Japan is ¥5086824 in 2024.

This isn't the average salary for entry level foreigners.

I didn’t say it was.

Tokyo City had an election for governor. These outside Tokyo-to areas have mayors. The more you know ...

Didn't Tokyo just have an election?

Why wasn't this a bigger issue then?

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.

This isn't the average salary for entry level foreigners.

I didn’t say it was.

Right-- I did.

wouldn't large investment like this by foreign companies be helpful for the plummeting value of the yen?

It would pay local taxes and business taxes.

MoonrakerToday  07:20 am JST

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?

Exactly what I thought. Why now? Which leads me to a similar question, is it because it's a foreign enterprise? Answer: Most likely.

The residents estimated that 3,000 of 4,800 trees on the site would have to be cut down

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.

@Gaijinjland If these developers or companies Build, and Pay a living wage the people will come and migrate to those areas. That is an old mind set, and the real reason why wages are the way they are today. It is the same reason for all of the over crowding and the high cost of living in the Tokyo area because the developers and companies built there and the people moved there and the area grew. If these companies build and pay young people a descent wage the area will grow much like Tokyo did, which would put a demand for other businesses to follow pursuit and provide community resources.

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.

I’d be interested yo know what wild life this is going to destroy

Crows, pigeons & rats, they're the only wild life I see in the suburban wastelands of Greater Tokyo.

Seems like some of the commentators here believe that Akishima must be somewhere between Shinjuku and Minato, rather than way out west in countryside Tokyo.

I’d be interested yo know what wild life this is going to destroy

Crows, pigeons & rats, they're the only wild life I see in the suburban wastelands of Greater Tokyo.

"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."

Badgers and goshawks for a start. Along with dozens of other species of birds, amphibians, mammals, reptiles and lots of trees.

Maybe the locals treasure the few natural areas that they still possess and the refuge that they provide.

They should look at some of the Data Centers the French have recently build. Datacenters generate a tremendous amount of heat. The french are converting that heat to hot water which is then sold to a local utility. Which then is used from everything from Urban Farming, heating water in swim venues, and heating houses. Japan already has an industry of selling hot spring water as a subscription in some parts of the country.

One study showed Data Centers could be converted to heat over 8 million houses in Europe. Given the density in many parts of Japan, there's a market.

Data centers are extremely loud - you can search youtube and see cities like Chicago where a data center building in an urban area has dozens of huge fans on the rooftop blowing out hot air and a loud 24/7 amplified fan noise next to hi-rise condos

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.

Excellent point.

Unfortunately, Tokyo governor Koike who prioritizes business with corporations including mainstream media than life or safety or health of citizen had been re-elected, and such protests will be trampled.

I worked as a data center tech. The biggest pollution is from the noise. They are incredibly loud all the time. I have a noise meter on my phone and it regularly measured in the 90 decibel range. They don't take much more water than a regular business because a chemical coolant is used if it is setup for coolant.

It will have multiple diesel generators the size of large trucks and possibly solar power back ups. The drain on the power supply is no joke. Generally the local power company will have to create a substation just for the datacenter. It's enough power for a small city. But power loss must be prevented to avoid downtime from any business housed there.

Putting something like this in a rural area has multiple problems including, lack of power infrastructure; Lack of data cables that transmit to and from the data center and lack of trained staff or people that would want to work in a rural area. The data infrastructure alone would be billions to install. It's not a little local cable like what goes into a house. And the cables are all buried in the ground.

They can locate these data centers in the country away from cities. The only difficulty is obtaining skilled labor to build the facilities. Later operations require skilled workers, too. Data centers use a huge amount of energy, and they need to be redundant (supplied from two different sources) and backed up with on-site generation. Maybe building a few data centers will help Japan escape the information technology dark ages.