Data-center law in Japan

Act No. 49 of 1979, Arts. 7, 8, 15, 16

Applies to both

The Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry designates as a specified business operator any person installing factories or workplaces whose combined annual energy use, calculated as prescribed by Cabinet Order, meets or exceeds a Cabinet-Order threshold (Art. 7(1)); this designation runs by total energy consumption rather than by industry, so a large data center's own energy use can cross it regardless of sector.

A specified business operator must appoint an energy management supervisor and an energy management planning promoter (Arts. 8-9), must periodically prepare and submit to the competent minister a mid-to-long-term plan toward the energy-rationalization and non-fossil-energy-conversion targets set under Art. 5 (Art. 15), and must report annually on energy use, efficiency, associated carbon dioxide emissions, and equipment status (Art. 16).

Failing to appoint the required personnel, or violating a ministerial order, carries a fine up to JPY 1,000,000 (Art. 174); failing to submit the Art. 15 plan or the Art. 16 report, or filing a false or missing initial notification under Art. 7(3), carries a lower fine up to JPY 500,000 (Art. 175).

Source: Full text of law

Act No. 170 of 1964, Arts. 42, 43, 118

Applies to both

Separately from the Act's registration regime for a business that itself sells, transmits, or distributes electricity (retail electricity business registration under Art. 2-2), the installer of a business-use electrical facility, other than a small-scale one, must establish a safety code covering the construction, maintenance, and operation of the facility and file it with the competent minister before the facility enters use, and must keep both the operator and its employees to that code (Art. 42).

The same installer must appoint, from holders of a chief-technician licence, a chief electrical technician charged with safety supervision of the facility's construction, maintenance, and operation, though the installer of a self-use electrical facility (jika-yo denki kosakubutsu, which reaches a data center's own substation, transformer, and backup-generation equipment) may instead appoint an unlicensed technician with the competent minister's permission (Art. 43).

Failing to appoint a chief technician under Art. 43(1), or constructing or altering a facility without the required notification under Art. 47(1), carries a fine up to JPY 3,000,000 (Art. 118).

Source: Full text of law