Hulic, a Japanese real estate giant, will demolish an older office building in Nihonbashi, Tokyo to make way for a brand-new data center. This will be Hulic's first data center. According to the company, the Japanese data center market will grow annually by over 5% in the next few years. The growing demand for high-speed and high-volume data transmission has created a need for data centers in the city center.

Built in 1982, the Kobunacho Kinen-Kaikan Building has eight stories. The office tenants vacated the building by the end of March, and demolition will begin shortly. The newly constructed building will also have eight stories. It is expected to be completed in 2025.

Tokyo's new data center is Hulic's first, although the company has already invested in network centers for telecommunications via Hulic-Reit. Hulic Reit invests in network centers that create nationwide connections between telecommunications networks operated by carriers throughout Japan. Connected to other domestic network providers, these centers offer network bridges, known in Japan as interprefectural communication.

According to Cloudscene, the total GDP of Japan is over US $4.12 trillion, with the digital economy contributing 9%. Japan's data center industry is booming. In addition to Japan's data centers, the digital economy includes 63.53 million fixed line telephone subscribers and 179.87 million mobile phone subscribers. In Japan, there are several data center clusters that provide a variety of colocation options. Japan is an important link between mainland Asia and North America via submarine cables. In Japan, Cloudscene counts 207 data centers, most of which are located in and around Tokyo and Osaka. Featuring a rich ecosystem and state-of-the-art equipment, large carrier neutral Japanese data centers ensure maximum uptime and connectivity to over 646 service providers.

Photo credit: Clement Souchet