Tsukuba Tech Central

A specialist study of heat rejection is under way. Once it is complete, the findings will be reported to Tsukuba City and summarised here.

We are also exploring ways to put the waste heat to good use locally, including hydroponic vegetable growing, saunas and breweries.

Noise laws and standards continue to apply once the facility operates. Noise-generating plant is installed inside acoustically insulated buildings or fitted with sound-insulation measures, and the emergency generators are installed indoors. Silencers, acoustic louvres and low-noise fans are built into the design to meet the standards. Backup generator test runs happen in daytime only.

Noise-generating plant is installed inside acoustically insulated buildings or fitted with sound-insulation measures, and low-noise, low-vibration equipment and anti-vibration measures are built into the design.

During construction, noise and vibration are measured periodically at the site boundary. The measurements are taken by specialist measurement firms, not by our own staff. If you have any concerns, please contact the dedicated residents' window.

Goodman carries out the works under the Noise Regulation Act, the Vibration Regulation Act and Ibaraki Prefecture's living-environment ordinance. Work is in principle carried out in daytime hours, uses low-noise, low-vibration machinery wherever possible, and noise and vibration are measured periodically at the site boundary throughout. Standards are not relaxed because this is a data centre: the same noise and vibration laws, the same daytime-hours restrictions and the same construction-machinery rules that apply to any large building project apply here.

The full list of measures, from the sound-insulating steel hoarding to managed vehicle routes, is under Construction & operation measures. A dedicated contact point handles residents' questions about the works.

The relevant electromagnetic field at a facility of this kind is the power-frequency (50 Hz) magnetic field from electrical equipment such as transformers, the same kind of field found near any electrical substation. These fields fall away rapidly with distance, so levels at the site boundary sit far below applicable limits.

Data centres also do not transmit strong radio waves the way a mobile-phone base station does.

With the shielding effect of reinforced-concrete structures and metal cladding, plus the distance from the equipment itself, electromagnetic fields at the site boundary and beyond are at very low levels.

The first building is water-cooled. Cooling uses industrial water brought in via a new dedicated supply; no groundwater is used for cooling. Mains water is used only for ordinary building uses such as washrooms. It will not affect household water supply, and will not cause land subsidence from groundwater extraction.

The volume of water discharged is relatively small, and it is never released untreated. Where water is released, its quality is checked and adjusted to meet the required standards first.

There is no equipment on a data centre campus that burns fuel continuously. The only fuel-burning equipment is the backup generators, which run solely during power outages and required periodic testing, with test runs in daytime only.

For the backup generators, we are voluntarily considering measures such as high-performance filtration.

The emergency generators run on Class A heavy oil and similar fuels, stored in dedicated underground tanks that comply with the Fire Service Act and the hazardous-materials regulations. The design, and the obtaining of the necessary permits, are carried out in consultation with the competent fire authority.

All equipment, including the backup generators, is housed indoors and inspected regularly. Data centres are supervised around the clock, with fire-suppression systems and continuous monitoring built in.

Data centres use batteries to hold the power supply for the short interval before the emergency generators start. The base building design does not itself include lithium-ion batteries, but equipment installed within the facility may do so, and lithium-based batteries are widely adopted in modern data centres.

Wherever batteries are installed they fall under the Fire Service Act. Battery rooms are fitted with dedicated detection and suppression equipment and ventilation, and are compartmented so that the effects of any incident are contained. The design is decided in consultation with the competent fire authority, and the necessary permits will be obtained.

Data centres run on electricity, so in normal operation no CO₂ is emitted directly at the Tsukuba campus or in its surroundings, and no thermal power generation will take place on the site or in Tsukuba City.

The buildings are designed to exceed Japan's latest energy-efficiency standards. Alongside that, we are considering pathways to carbon neutrality, including the procurement of renewable electricity.

The receiving capacity of the first data centre building is 50 MW. That is the capacity of the whole facility, covering the IT equipment together with the cooling and building systems that support it. It is not a figure for the servers alone.

The full site is developed in stages over many years, in step with changes in society and technology. Under the supply arrangement with the power company, up to 1,000 MW across the completed development is anticipated. Supply reaches the campus through dedicated transmission arrangements, separate from household supply.

A new transmission line, separate from household supply, will be built to power the data centre campus, so household electricity supply is unaffected.

We have confirmed in advance that the power company can secure the supply capacity required for this development.

In Japan, household electricity tariffs are set under a separate mechanism from those for large consumers. A large consumer such as Goodman contracts with the power company separately from households, so it has no bearing on how household tariffs are set.

Supply to the campus is provided through dedicated transmission arrangements, separate from household supply.

Existing trees with a strong prospect of surviving relocation are preserved and transplanted within the site, and new trees will be planted around the perimeter and along the internal roads. Soil preparation for roadside planting began in August 2026.

The landscaping plan that sets the numbers and species is being finalised. We will publish a summary here once it is confirmed.

The planting schedule is under Green spaces & the disaster-prevention hub.

Of the approximately 45 hectares of the development, the current masterplan provides approximately 5.3 hectares of green space, comprising the disaster-prevention hub on the southern part of the site, perimeter planting and retained vegetation.

The disaster-prevention hub and its amenities on the south of the site, roughly 45,000 m², are built at our cost, with the disaster stockpile warehouse and multi-purpose square provided for the City's use free of charge.

The landscaping plan that sets the numbers and species is being finalised, and we will publish a summary here once it is confirmed.

Extensive planting is planned across the site, and the buildings incorporate a range of design measures. The aim is a business park that is modern and forward-looking as a whole, while coexisting with nature and sitting harmoniously within Tsukuba and its neighbourhoods.

Building exteriors will likewise be designed in harmony with the surroundings, a design fit for a carefully planned, forward-looking city.

A steel hoarding roughly 3 m high, with sound-insulating properties, is erected along the road boundary of the works area. Construction vehicles run on managed routes and hours, with no idling. Widening of the prefectural road to the north of the site and of the national route to the east is complete, and both have been handed over to the authorities.

The full list of measures, construction vehicles included, is under Construction & operation measures. For vehicles once the campus is open, see the next question.

Vehicles enter and leave via the widened prefectural road to the north and the new roads inside the site, not through neighbourhood streets, keeping the impact on the surrounding area low.

Car parking is provided at the disaster-prevention hub and amenity area, with enough spaces that visitors do not need to park on nearby roads. Operational details are being settled in consultation with Tsukuba City and the relevant authorities.

Because the development is phased, construction proceeds parcel by parcel rather than all at once. The first building is underway now, and the first data centre is due to be operational in early 2028.

Each stage of works is notified in advance and is in principle carried out in daytime hours, and a dedicated contact point handles residents' questions about the works.

On roughly 45,000 m² at the south of the site (about the size of Tokyo Dome), the hub brings together a disaster stockpile warehouse, a well for the exclusive use of the hub, and a broad multi-purpose square, alongside amenity buildings with cafés, shops and restaurants, and a woodland area of natural forest.

The design is by Tezuka Architects, winners of the UNESCO-backed Global Award for Sustainable Architecture. In normal times it is open to everyone, with markets, seasonal events and community gatherings planned.

In a disaster, relief supplies from the stockpile warehouse serve the neighbourhood and the citizens of Tsukuba, and the well and square become working response space. An agreement with Tsukuba City on disaster-time use is under discussion.

The disaster stockpile warehouse and multi-purpose square are for the City’s use free of charge; it is planned as a long-term community asset.

The disaster stockpile warehouse and multi-purpose square are leased to the City from spring 2028, and we are targeting the amenity area to open from around summer 2028.

An agreement with Tsukuba City on its use in a disaster is also under discussion.

Cashless payments, bank ATMs, telehealth, digital classrooms: data centres support the many digital services daily life depends on. Like electricity, water and roads, they are essential infrastructure.

For more about data centres and Goodman, see here.

Tax revenue supporting public services, jobs created and local businesses engaged through construction and operations, and a ~45,000 m² disaster-prevention hub and amenities built for the community: the project gives back in many ways.

See What the community gains for the full picture.

We held resident briefing sessions over three days in August 2026. Invitations were delivered directly to every household and business within approximately 150 metres of the site boundary, well beyond the range set by Tsukuba City's development guidance, and to the district heads of the surrounding area, around 280 invitations in all. We also run tours of Goodman Business Park in Inzai, a working example of a campus and its community side by side, hosting district heads of Tsukuba from the area around the site, members of the Tsukuba City Council, the Mayor of Tsukuba, the Governor of Chiba and the Mayor of Inzai.

We have also distributed roughly 12,000 information flyers to residents, fanning out from the project site. We will keep updating this site and distributing new flyers, visit the closest neighbours in person, and hold further resident briefing sessions.

Tours of Goodman Business Park (Inzai, Chiba Prefecture) are arranged for residents on request. If you would like to join one, please contact us by phone or via the contact page.

Information on the development plan and environmental measures is kept up to date on this site.

The status of environmental measurement and the heat study is reported on the Environment and legal compliance page. For the heat study, we will report the findings to Tsukuba City and publish a summary here once it is complete.

Goodman is a member of the Japan Data Center Council (JDCC). Our activity against each item the industry's May 2026 community-coexistence guideline calls for is set out under Industry guideline alignment.

We are also in concrete discussions with Tsukuba City towards a formal agreement on coexistence with the local community, and we are exploring, with the city and leading research institutions in Tsukuba, whether to carry out joint demonstration trials into the latest data centre technology and energy efficiency.