Japan Picks 18 Regions as Green Transformation Strategy Areas

Tokyo, Sept. 11 (Jiji Press)--Japan's industry ministry said Friday that it has selected 18 regions as so-called green transformation strategy areas.

The ministry will support the regions by easing regulations on land use and providing subsidies, aiming to attract companies and investment from Japan and abroad as part of efforts to strengthen the industrial competitiveness of regional economies.

Demand for data centers is growing with the spread of generative artificial intelligence, while operating them requires enormous amounts of electricity.

The ministry aims to attract large-scale data centers requiring around 1 gigawatt of power to regions rich in decarbonized energy sources to revitalize domestic investment and local industries.

The ministry designated nine of the 18 regions as areas for concentrating data centers. In Hokkaido, northernmost Japan, 11 firms including Japanese telecommunications company NTT East Inc. operate one of Japan's largest data centers powered by renewable energy in the city of Ishikari.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]