October 4, 2024 Announcement of “Interim Report 3.0 of Expert Group Meetings on Development of Digital Infrastructures (e.g., DCs)”

 The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) have been holding expert group meetings on the development of digital infrastructures, such as data centers (DCs). These meetings aim to support the development of digital infrastructures, whose importance is rapidly increasing, examine location-related requirements, including resilience reinforcement and the securement of energy and communications, and foster the sound development of the companies responsible for these infrastructures from an economic security perspective.
 Today, the “Interim Report 3.0 of Expert Group Meetings on Development of Digital Infrastructures (e.g., DCs)” was announced based on the discussions at this meeting.

1. Purpose

 The digitalization of society and industry is expected to lead to new businesses that utilize data across all fields, including medicine, education, transportation, and agriculture, and to address social issues through these businesses. In this context, the importance of digital infrastructures, such as 5G, communications networks, and data centers (DCs), which are essential for collecting, transmitting, and processing data, is increasing.
 The Government of Japan has been coordinating efforts based on the Interim Report and the Interim Report 2.0 to advance measures for decentralizing data center locations, etc.
 In light of this situation, new investment in data centers is further expanding in Japan, coupled with the introduction and development of cloud computing and AI. In particular, we are entering a transformative period in which the evolving roles and applications of data centers, along with their increasing scale due to the emergence of Generative AI, make it difficult to perceive digital infrastructures as an extension of the past.
 Against this backdrop, the expert meetings were resumed in May 2024, bringing together experts and business people involved in digital infrastructures to discuss how data centers should be developed in light of recent environmental changes surrounding digital infrastructure.
 Today, the “Interim Report 3.0 of Expert Group Meetings on Development of Digital Infrastructures (e.g., DCs)” was announced based on the discussions at this meeting. Going forward, the appropriate development of digital infrastructures will proceed considering this interim report.

2. Interim Report 3.0

 Interim Report 3.0 of Expert Group Meetings on Development of Digital Infrastructures (e.g., DCs) (Overview) PDF