Discontent is growing in the Tokyo metropolitan area due to proposals to construct giant data centers in residential areas, with industry groups working to smooth relations between locals concerned about the "eerie" facilities' imposing nature and the companies that operate them.
Despite tech companies investing heavily to build the massive digital hubs to meet the storage and processing demands of cloud computing and artificial intelligence, some projects are being scrapped due to opposition from residents worried about electricity shortages, heat islands and obstruction of their natural light.
In the city of Hino in Tokyo, a billboard announced the construction of three data centers, including a five-story, 72-meter-tall building scheduled for completion in 2031. As the tallest structure in the city, it would be the area's proverbial sore thumb.
A residential association is demanding the project be paused until the plan conforms to a city ordinance that limits the height of apartment buildings to 25 meters.
The facility, which will require tight security, would also consume a massive amount of electricity and generate significant levels of heat.
"They haven't given us an acceptable explanation," said resident association head Eizo Tsutsumizaki, 71, referring to the project owner Mitsui Fudosan Co Ltd.
Mitsui Fudosan is now considering whether the building's height can be reduced. As a tradeoff, it also plans to build a new park and sidewalk on the site to accommodate the community.
In Inzai, Chiba Prefecture, home to many data centers, the city was flooded with calls of concern in April when plans were revealed for an over 50-meter-tall building housing a data center in a prime location in front of a station.
It would add a new and imposing structure to the area, which already hosts 114 data centers, according to datacenter.com.
Mayor Kengo Fujishiro wrote on social media, "This place is the center of civic life. It is not an appropriate location for this facility."
In Nagareyama, a city in the same prefecture, a plan that surfaced in 2022 to build a data center on a vacant lot south of the city hall had to be withdrawn due to opposition from residents.
The clashes between residents and the technology behemoths stem from a lack of suitable sites in Japan, considered an attractive location.
According to the Japan Data Center Council, Japan has better infrastructure and a stable political environment compared to other Asian countries, making it a prime location for large-scale technology investment.
However, proposed sites tend to be located around large cities where it is easy to access workers and telecommunications infrastructure is robust.
"The only suitable sites are in Tokyo, Osaka, and their suburbs," said JDCC executive director Naohiro Masunaga. With nearly all the options exhausted, businesses have no choice but to encroach into residential areas.
As demand for data handling explodes, facilities are becoming larger and larger. Hyperscale data centers -- facilities with a total floor space of more than 15,000 square meters -- have become common, with their integrated server farms meeting the processing needs of rapidly growing cloud computing, big data, and generative AI functions.
Fumito Haga, manager of Fuji Chimera Research Institute, said, "There is no doubt that the number of giant data centers will continue to increase."
Some municipalities are taking matters into their own hands. In April, Tokyo's Koto Ward started requiring data center business owners to install signs announcing construction earlier than previously and to clearly indicate the location of heat-emitting outdoor units.
Inzai has begun considering whether to set restrictions on the construction of data centers near residential areas.
JDCC's Masunaga said, "Right now, anxiety is prevailing. It is important for business owners to disclose information and steadily work to build trust with the communities affected."
© KYODO
42 Comments
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Jay
The scary thing is it ain’t about some eerie buildings - that’s just the surface. These data centers popping up in ain’t just warehouses for servers, they're recording all of our clicks, every thought, every choice we didn’t even know we made - it’s ALL getting harvested. It used to be all about visibility for companies, but that's old school now. They don’t give a toss that much if we see their brand anymore, they care if they see through you... the real goldmine for them ain’t selling you a product, it’s predicting your behavior, bending your habits, and quietly building profiles so precise they know when you’re gonna get sick before you do.
THINK about that. We're not the customer anymore - WE'RE the product, the lab rat, the variable in THEIR algorithm.
wallace
DATA centers should not be in residential areas.
wallace
There are 88 DATA centers in Tokyo.
https://www.datacentermap.com/japan/tokyo/
MarkX
This is just pure laziness on the part of the owners of the Data centers. They could easily move out into more rural areas, that have good access to Tokyo, cheaper land and cheaper electricity. But just like everyone else, they want to be in Tokyo since it is easy and the place to be!
Koike should pass a law banning all Data centers in Tokyo! But she won't as she wants the revenue! They are all complicit.
Some dude
The scary thing is it ain’t about some eerie buildings - that’s just the surface. These data centers popping up in ain’t just warehouses for servers, they're recording all of our clicks, every thought, every choice we didn’t even know we made - it’s ALL getting harvested. It used to be all about visibility for companies, but that's old school now. They don’t give a toss that much if we see their brand anymore, they care if they see through you... the real goldmine for them ain’t selling you a product, it’s predicting your behavior, bending your habits, and quietly building profiles so precise they know when you’re gonna get sick before you do.
Why are you literally afraid of everything?
Jay
There’s a difference between being afraid and being aware. Being prepared, questioning motives, or standing your ground doesn’t mean living in fear - it means being able to think critically, and actually having a spine.
But while we're asking questions: why is your default setting is always set at "defeat"? Why do you bend over for everything that gets thrown your way? Seriously, every time something uncomfortable comes up, why do you just fold like a cheap lawn chair and mumble “shikata ga nai” like it’s some profound wisdom and pretend it's not straight up ignorance?
didou
if they put the data center in natural areas, and have to cut trees etc, city is much better
Speed
The Japanese countryside is bleeding for jobs and young people and have a butt load of more space available than in residential areas in Tokyo or its surrounds.
Why doesn't this good-for-nothing govt. use this opportunity to help solve the kaso mondai?
Also, they should build these monstrosities only in large industrial areas rather than in residential or small business areas.
Come on J Gov, use this opportunity to do something right for a change.
collegepark30349
There have been two data centers built in my hometown by Lumen and CleanSpark. Heard nothing but bad things about them. Noise, heat and occasional brown outs for local residents. Also doesn't employ near the number of locals they said they would.
HopeSpringsEternal
Digital economic reality, as so many areas are rapidly aging and depopulating. Naturally, data centers need to close to where the 'digital' action is centered, the cities in order to reduce latency, secure employees etc.
Data centers not so different than tourism, many find it annoying, but the economic catalyst badly needed.
Negative Nancy
Haha! Tokyo can have it!
JDoe
Ahhhh, that pesky nuisance called progress. Where Is the FAX machine!!
InspectorGadget
Zoning laws
The reason that this occurs in Japan is the way Zoning Laws work in Japan. Areas are divided into one of 12 categories ranging from low rise residential at the bottom through to industrial at the top.
In most cases zones are cumulative, meaning that Commercial/Inductrial zones can still be used for any of the lower categories (eg low rise residential or apartments. This is why there is a unique mix of building types and purposes in the same areas.
The advantages are that employment and services are often very close to residential areas. The draw back is that there are often clashes (eg noise vs residential, building size vs environment, traffic vs sleep etc)
Read more here
https://carfreeamerica.substack.com/p/japanese-zoning-better-than-us-zoning
Roten
So what are data centers exactly, and why can't they be build in rural areas where there are old abandoned buildings and houses? Not knowing enough about data centers, it is hard for me to see why they need to be in the middle of cities, even if not in residential areas. Do they need to be in urban areas because they have a need for well educated workers? Or are they really so automated that they could be built in rural areas that have adequate electricity and data feeder lines? Could they be build in outlying areas of major cities, if they need to be built near major cities, and closer to workers rather than having workers having to commute long distances to the centers of cities? We need a lot more information to understand the nature of the protests or the needs of the data centers.
Silvafan
These data centers are bad for the environment anywhere. Technically, they are better off located in places that are naturally cold like the arctic or near natural water sources from a design standpoint
This is mostly a myth! Electricity in rural areas is typically more expensive unless near a nuclear power plant, but that has its own issues. People in urban planning will tell you that it is more expensive and less efficient to provide resources to rural areas than it is concentrate them in one location like a metropolitan city. Data centers take a lot of money and resources to build and maintain. Those costs are not directly recouped later by the individual data centers because these data centers do not produce anything or make profits. Therefore it is cheaper to build them in cities where the infrastructure is already in place.
HopeSpringsEternal
Remember, the digital society, while requiring lots of energy, also results in huge productivity gains, think E-Commerce, allowing people to have things easily delivered vs. wasting time and energy travelling.
Business "Zoom" meetings, ditto, so to call datacenters bad for the environment is not sensible in reality
Mr Kipling
Hino is hardly "the metropolis. They have to build them somewhere and out of the way places like Hino are perfect, which is exactly why they are built there.
Sister Jane
You sure got a lot of down votes, probably from the indoctrinated slaves to the system I would imagine. The elite have been controlling most throughout history, and 99% of the controlled have not figured it out yet and they will never figure it out. Very few people think for themselves, perhaps those people do need the Data Centers and leaders to tell them what to do every waking moment of their lives. This will probably be deleted for being out of point, but believe me when I say, it is the point, it's all about control, for with control comes everything that the so called elites desire. So put on your mask, and take your medicine.
Silvafan
Hino is far from rural. Hino has a lot of tech companies out there. Olympus R&D is located out there. Yokogawa denki and a lot of other major companies are in Hino, too. It is simply a cheaper part of Tokyo with a declining population.
wallace
The Kanto/TEPCO electricity demand is at 90%, reaching maximum capacity. DATA centers use more electricity than some countries.
They also generate massive amounts of heat.
All of Apple's DATA centers are powered by renewable energy.
Silvafan
Data center costs set to rise and rise
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/data-center-costs-set-to-rise-and-rise/
Data centers require large amounts of electricity 24hrs a day for delivering date like in Zoom calls as well to keep the data centers cool from overheating and exploding with advanced cooling systems.
Whose electricity bills are going to increase because of data centers?
ANS: Everybodies!
Cephus
"THINK about that. We're not the customer anymore - WE'RE the product, the lab rat, the variable in THEIR algorithm."
Spoken words of wisdom, with everyone's DNA they have all the power they need.
Sven Asai
'Don't worry too much and give them a few of the wanted toys they cry for. First, they'll just suffocate from and drown in all the huge data amounts, as they don't have the money and workforce anymore in an aging and overdebted society for handling or using the data amounts. And second, the more data the more unreliable the AI models behind, which the latest research development show. No data centers is not the solution, because they will insist on getting them, and of course like the toddlers don't believe talking about hot plates being hot, they need their own learning curve and negative experience too. And believe it or not, they obviously have a very low learning curve, if even any. So they'll burn a lot of further money investments and will build a lot of useless data centers and nuclear power plants to operate it all. Can't be helped, they need the real failing and hurting experience and disappointments before their learning can begin.
wanderlust
They should look at Ibaraki - Kashima area - flat, stable land; lots of solar power; good transportation and communication; shortage of work; good land for building factories, plants and housing; dozens of akiya (!), lots of space, recreational facilities.
John
The purpose of the data centers is to micro manage individuals life and to have full control of each person to know what we do. what we write write, what time we go to toilet etc in daily life. It is fair to say good bye to our non-existing freedom.
wallace
Calendar of actual maximum demand in the past（Tokyo area）
https://www.tepco.co.jp/en/forecast/html/calendar-e.html
virusrex
Data centers are not related to DNA collection, and nobody has "everyone's DNA" you are confusing several privacy issues that are independent.
kohakuebisu
The takeaway here sounds like the country is so centralized that they cannot decentralize things like this.
Presumably if the government built the infrastructure to decentralize itself, it would enable other things to be decentralized too. Since the government won't do this, its hard to blame the telecoms people for wanting to be where all the telecoms stuff is.
HopeSpringsEternal
Chiba needs datacenter investment, has ample available land, as all other real estate asset classes, besides IT related and logistics are lousy, have been for many years
Easy to find those upset, but surely most in Chiba (and other suburbs) happy about their increased $relevance
wallace
The 88 DATA centers in Tokyo employ fewer than 10,000 employees. Data centers in the US are separated by thousands of miles. They are concentrated in specific regions, such as Northern Virginia, Phoenix, Dallas, and Silicon Valley. Distance from customers is not a problem for them.
WhatsAllThisThen
@Jay
Agreed. I'd say being aware and ready to adapt / resist is the opposite of living in fear. Courageous caution.
Normalcy bias. Especially popular with the Brits. "Oh, bother." - Winnie the Pooh accepts defeat
Jonathan Prin
In my country France, many data centers are built in the middle of nowhere or not in cities at least.
There are data hubs in fact so except if they are data cloud servers for local Japanese companies, it does not need to be built in cities.
Sure it is about laziness and lack of foresight in urban management, which is standard in Japan, as explained by InspectorGadget above (Thanks !).
One good point though : a maximum of unavoidable energy can be used with a high recovery heat.
Normally that heat should be used for many purposes like heating and for industry process at cheap prices thanks to district heating. Problem is that Japan clearly lacks such facilities. Correct me if I am wrong.
So heat island effects are created instead...going against logic.
cv
There is doubtful adhesion between this real estate corporation who is protested and Tokyo governor such as buying and selling the ground by unjust cheap.
wallace
DATA centers can be powered by solar and wind, and use the generated heat to power their own turbines.
nozaki
Japanese residents will be new victim of gentrification.
Cephus
"DATA centers can be powered by solar and wind, and use the generated heat to power their own turbines."
All the better, then they should be in rural areas not crowding further cities like Tokyo, Osaka or LA
Sandoval
As a someone who has experience working in data centers I would like to say few things. When it comes to nuisance to the residents, data centers are probably the least bothersome commercial buildings in the neighborhood. They are not as noisy or busy like eg. warehouses, factories etc. However, they are constructed as bunkers with little to no windows. They are quite ugly buildings, and 70 something meters of building like that is definitely a sore eye. Also, because of the security reasons they exist just for its purpose and basically they are not helping communities by any means.
My theory is that they don’t want them in countryside because of the workforce. There is quite significant talent pool in Tokyo compared to countryside.
factchecker
All the places listed in this article aren't known for green leafy boulevards. Just concrete lego jungle. A few more boxes won't damage the pristine atmosphere the nimbys are crying about.
HopeSpringsEternal
Latency matters to MANY big users of data, thus data center growth (US tech. naturally), exploding globally.
Lots of jobs, both direct and indirect, real estate a huge beneficiary, including property owners in Kanto, but biggest $growth catalyst, new services and productivity gains = due to growth in digital infrastructure
Japan can't wait around, clean energy is a fantasy, though battery backup storage a good idea
CrashTestDummy
Are the data centers using people's data in a way beneficial to them or against them? That is my main concern.
Mr Kipling
Wallace...
Good link! However, I know of a few that are not on here out Machida way.
If people look at the map they will see that hardly any of them are in residential areas.
HopeSpringsEternal
Good news, depopulation is real, including in large urban areas, along with rapid aging and thus people 'downsizing', moving to care facilities, etc.
In other words, PLENTY of land for Data Centers, as far too many empty homes and under-utilized commercial real estate, and its ONLY getting worse by the day.
Remember, for every JN born this year, approx. 3 will die, 30% of Yokohama will be +65 any day, so forget this false narrative that everyone is young in major cities!