Major Data Center Expansion in Japan
Data center operator Colt DCS and APAC real estate firm ESR have formed a joint venture to develop a massive 130MW hyperscale data center campus in Minoh City, Osaka, Japan, according to recent announcements. The partnership represents significant expansion for both companies in the Osaka market, with site preparation work already underway and construction scheduled to begin in 2027.
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Project Specifications and Timeline
The Minoh data center campus will span approximately 140,000 square meters (1,506,947 square feet) of land that the joint venture has acquired and rezoned for development, the report states. The first phase, comprising 65MW of capacity, will be designed and built by the joint venture and operated by Colt DCS, with the facility expected to be ready for service in late 2029.
Analysts suggest this development comes amid growing regional competition in digital infrastructure, similar to expansion patterns seen in other Asian markets. Recent reports indicate neighboring countries are also experiencing infrastructure developments, including shifting trade dynamics affecting India’s exports and Ipswich installing the UK’s first international portal.
Strategic Importance for Both Companies
Niclas Sanfridsson, CEO of Colt DCS, stated according to reports that “Colt DCS has built a strong track record of delivering world-class data centers for our hyperscale customers in Japan. The joint venture with ESR will allow us to accelerate our expansion in Japan, enabling us to support the expansion plans for our global cloud customers and the emerging AI sector.”
Stuart Gibson, co-founder and co-CEO of ESR, added that “Japan is a key pillar of our data center strategy, and our joint venture with Colt DCS marks a milestone in our blueprint to deliver next-generation data center infrastructure that underpins digital growth across the region.”
Growing Data Center Footprints
Colt DCS reportedly opened its Osaka Keihanna data center in 2023 and currently operates five sites in Tokyo with another in development. The company’s portfolio includes 13 operational data centers globally, with an additional 19 in development across 11 cities in the UK, Europe, and APAC.
ESR, which has traditionally focused on logistics real estate, completed commissioning of its first hyperscale facility, the 72MW OS1 Osaka, in 2025. The company’s other data center developments in Japan reportedly include the 100MW Keihanna data center campus in Kyoto, plus 30MW Higashi Kurume and 60MW Ariake facilities in Tokyo.
Regional Context and Market Trends
The development occurs against a backdrop of increasing digital infrastructure investment across Asia. Sources indicate that US-China trade tensions continue to escalate over export controls, potentially affecting technology supply chains. Meanwhile, the IMF has issued warnings about US debt levels and Turkey’s anti-corruption drive, while Kazakhstan border gridlock has disrupted China-Russia trade routes.
Diarmid Massey, CEO of data centers at ESR, stated that “Our partnership with Colt DCS complements ESR’s ability to deliver data centers at scale in high-demand markets for capital partners and customers. Our purpose-built, high-performance Minoh data center is being designed to support hyperscale, AI, and large enterprise-driven workloads.”
ESR’s Broader Data Center Strategy
According to the analysis, ESR has made numerous investments in the data center space since 2021 and currently has 575MW of committed data center sites in key markets across APAC, with a pipeline of more than 2GW worth of land and projects. The company reportedly has developments planned in Hong Kong, Malaysia, South Korea, and Australia.
ESR subsidiary ARA Asset Management also maintains a data center footprint through its Logos Group unit, which partnered with Pure Data Centres for a 20MW facility in Indonesia. This expansion aligns with broader industry trends, including Google’s Gemini integration challenging Apple’s macOS dominance in the competitive tech landscape.
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Industry observers note that the collaboration between a specialized data center operator and a major real estate firm represents an emerging model for addressing the massive capital requirements and land acquisition challenges associated with hyperscale data center development, particularly in high-demand Asian markets.
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