Google Koto-Ku data center, Tokyo, Japan

Google's data center capacity in Tokyo, Japan, runs through its asia-northeast1 cloud computing region, which opened November 8, 2016, but Google has not said which Tokyo ward holds its servers, so there is no confirmation that any of its buildings sit in Koto City. DCD reported that Google's Tokyo and Osaka cloud regions are hosted in colocation buildings, meaning buildings built and owned by another company, such as those run by Equinix, not by Google itself.

Koto City has tightened its rules for large data centers since April 2025, requiring builders to post signs 120 days before construction instead of 90 and to show where outdoor air conditioning units will go. On February 1, 2026 the ward added a stronger guideline covering any building taller than 10 meters and larger than 3,000 square meters that is mostly data center, requiring advance consultation with the ward, a residents' briefing within 15 days of posting a sign, and disclosure of waste heat, noise, vibration, fuel storage and security plans.

The rule's first test is a five-story, 51-meter data center planned by Singapore-based Empyrion Digital in Sengoku 3-chome, about 500 meters from the ward office, where residents have raised concerns about heat, noise and roughly 1.2 million liters of heavy fuel oil planned for underground storage in a flood-prone area. Ward Mayor Tomoka Okubo has said Japan's Building Standards Act does not define data centers and no law regulates where they can be built, so the ward's only tools are guidance and required briefings, not the power to block a project. Whether Google's own Tokyo servers would ever fall under those rules depends on Google and its colocation partners, which have not said where the servers are located.