When Munekazu and Erin Tanikawa got the keys to their brand new apartment in a Tokyo commuter town in 2022, little did the married couple know that a land deal was being finalised that would upend their lives.
Four months after moving in, a special-purpose vehicle, backed by Canadian pension fund CPP Investments, US asset manager Fidelity and local trading house Mitsui & Co, bought the parking lot in front of their balcony to develop a 52-metre-tall data centre.
Since then, their ¥50mn ($312,000) property is estimated to have lost about a quarter of its value. The couple complain about expected heat and noise from the planned data centre, and the risks associated with the storage of tonnes of fuel — for a backup generator — on their doorstep.