Japanese Internet and data center firm IIJ will expand its Shiroi data center campus, located east of Tokyo in Shiroi City, Chiba Prefecture.
Dubbed ‘Phase 3’, the expansion will add about 1,000 racks, amounting to 10MW of capacity expandable up to 25MW. The site currently offers approximately 1,800 racks with 20MW of capacity.
Construction is scheduled to begin on June 1 of this year, with the start of operation planned for FY 2026.
The facility, which is around 40,000 sqm (430,000 sq ft), was built in 2019 and first expanded in 2023, but IIJ estimated that the center would reach maximum capacity by 2026.
The data center is air-cooled and utilises on-site solar power.
Chiba’s proximity to the Japanese capital has made it an attractive data center market. NTT, Stack, and Digital Realty have a presence in the region.
Founded in 1992, IIJ was the country’s first ISP. It operates around 17 locations in Japan and five more internationally.
IIJ also offers modular container and micro data center (MDC) services, the latter in partnership with ZellaDC. They operate MDCs in Japan, one in Iceland, and have explored the possibility of deploying another in Kenya.
KDDI acquired an 11.5 percent stake in IIJ in 2023.
