"Editorial: Japan's data center boom must not create a new pollution problem," 22 August 2026

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With the spread of artificial intelligence, the construction of data centers, which process enormous volumes of information, is surging across Japan. Some estimates show that large-scale data centers have expanded about fourfold over the past seven years.

... The town of Seika, Kyoto Prefecture, where the municipal assembly took up the issues of noise and exhaust emissions from generators, has announced a policy of, in principle, no longer seeking to attract new projects.

Behind such distrust is the ambiguous legal status of data centers. In building confirmation applications submitted to local governments, their use is listed as "office" and other facilities. That does not match the reality of data centers that house a wide range of equipment.

These data centers are not covered by the national environmental impact assessment system, and operators have not provided sufficient information. Even basic information such as power consumption and fuel storage volume tends not to be disclosed, with security cited as the reason. This cannot dispel residents' anxieties.

Rules for construction should be clarified, including safety and environmental standards that take account of the risks posed by data centers.

Amid this backlash, industry groups are also beginning to address the issue. They have drawn up guidelines calling on operators to engage in dialogue with local residents from the site-selection stage and to thoroughly disclose information.

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The Japanese government intends to select candidate locations for data center clusters in various regions and accelerate development. ...