Japanese automobile corporation Mitsubishi and JFE Holdings will use an industrial site in Kawasaki to build a data centre to support the growing demand for artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. The project, expected to be completed by fiscal 2030, will cost between 100 billion yen ($664 million) and 150 billion yen.
According to a Tuesday exclusive by Nikkei Asia, the data centre will occupy the land that once harboured a blast furnace operated by JFE Holdings at East Japan Works, Keihin, which ceased operations in 2023.
Mitsubishi and JFE Steel’s holding company will conduct joint surveys in 2025 before making a final investment decision in coordination with the Kawasaki municipal government.
Japan car manufacturer will lead operations
Mitsubishi is slated to operate the facility, which will be equipped with high-performance servers featuring Nvidia chips optimized for generative AI and other advanced computing tasks.
The plant’s anticipated power consumption could reach 60,000 to 90,000 kilowatts, making it a bigger facility than those across the Kanto and Kansai regions, which collectively consume 168,000 kilowatts.
According to the Tokyo-based Fuji Chimera Research Institute, Japan’s data centre market is projected to grow by 34% to reach 5.4 trillion yen by 2029.
SoftBank and KDDI have converted parts of a former Sharp LCD panel plant in Osaka, while Mitsui Fudosan is developing a data centre on a former Hino Motors factory site in Tokyo.
JFE Holdings has also divested parts of the Kawasaki site. Furniture retailer Nitori Holdings has acquired 21 hectares for a logistics centre, while a joint venture between Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Iwatani could build a hydrogen storage facility set to begin operations in 2030.
Mitsubishi and its partners are contemplating using hydrogen as a power source for the facility to reduce carbon emissions.
Japanese Americans condemn WWII-era law to deport Venezuelans
Back in the US, President Donald Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan migrants has angered some Japanese American advocacy groups, who likened the decision to an internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
On March 15, the Trump administration used the 1798 law, last employed to justify the internment of Japanese Americans in the 1940s, to expel alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. Over 200 individuals were flown to a mega-prison in El Salvador despite a temporary court order blocking the deportations.
Mike Ishii, co-founder and executive director of Tsuru for Solidarity, said the administration’s actions as “deeply personal.” His mother was among the 13,000 individuals incarcerated at the Minidoka camp in Idaho during World War II.
“This is our moment to be the allies that our families needed back then,” Ishii said. “We can show up right now, we can stand in solidarity with our neighbours. Stop repeating history.”
Satsuki Ina, another co-founder of Tsuru for Solidarity, was born in California’s Tule Lake Segregation Center, saw her father arrested for sedition after opposing the conscription of detained Japanese Americans, and was sent to an internment camp for “enemy aliens.”
“Those images that are being shown on national TV are so resonant of images we have seen of people like my father being removed,” Ina beckoned.
Last week, a coalition of Japanese Americans and other community groups gathered at the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California and Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo district to condemn the administration’s actions.
Present in the protests was Activist Kyoko Nancy Oda, also born in the Tule Lake Segregation Center, who surmised: “I oppose the Alien Enemies Act because it reopens deep wounds and inflicts new ones. I hate the fear that is rampant, hurting people just like 1941.”
Annie Lee, managing director of policy at Chinese for Affirmative Action, called upon all communities to unite and fight the policy.
“They are coming after all of us,” Lee warned at the San Francisco protest. “If you think you are safe because you’re a citizen or you speak English, you are sorely mistaken.”
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