Toshibas New R&D Complex be an Incubator for Cutting Edge Technologies, and a New Landmark for Kawasaki

TOKYO--Thanks to Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO: 6502), the Komukai district of Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan will soon have a new landmark, as the company today released plans for an approximately 34-billion-yen investment in a new R&D Center that includes an eye-catching 12-story cube. Construction is slated to start in January 2022, and employees will have access to the new center's cutting-edge facilities in April 2023.

Looking to the future, toward achieving resilience for growth and its transformation to an infrastructure services company, Toshiba is promoting the Toshiba Next Plan for corporate transformation. High-tech innovation, the constant driving force of Toshiba's business, is central to achieving this strategy.

The new center will be designed to ensure Toshiba's long-term capabilities in research and development. It will be constructed within Toshiba's Komukai Complex, following demolition of part of the current Corporate R&D Center and some semiconductor development facilities, and once complete it will consolidate bases now dispersed across the Tokyo metropolitan area.

Housed in two buildings, a 12-story high-rise and an adjacent 4-story low-rise, the new facility will deliver an enhanced in-house R&D environment, and also aim to be an open R&D space that promotes collaborative creation with customers and dialogue with the wider society. It will also offer an exhibition venue open to outside parties. The formal name of the new center will be decided as it nears completion. In addition to being a center for advanced research, the complex has a striking design that will make it an instant landmark particularly the impressive cube of the main building.

Researchers will participate in the design of the center's work areas, and spacious, partition-free areas will encourage easy interactions outside of specialty fields. The aim is a flexible environment that inspires researchers to see problems and their solutions as multi-faceted, and that acts as in incubator for novel approaches and new ideas. With consideration for the new normal triggered by the novel coronavirus, thought is also being given to how to promote creative discussions beyond the constraints of the work place.

The new buildings will be as environmentally neutral as possible. All electricity will be generated with renewable resources, and CO2 emissions from energy consumption will be zero; overall CO2 emissions at Komukai Complex from R&D activities will be halved. This will contribute to the realization of a decarbonized society and also to Toshiba's acquisition of SBT Initiative certification*, which it aims to achieve in FY2020.

Once it is up and running, Toshiba aims to make the new center a place that concentrates internal and external wisdom, that encourages the continuous generation of new ideas and technologies, and that supports Toshiba Group's development as an infrastructure service company that takes full advantage of CPS technologies.

* The Science-based targets initiative aims to reduce emissions of greenhouses at a pace consistent with the decarbonization that climate science specifies as necessary to maintain global temperature increases within 1.5 to 2 C of pre-industrial levels.

Artist's impression

Outline of new center

Location: Komukai Complex

1 Komukai-Toshiba-cho, Saiwai-ku Kawasaki-shi,

Kanagawa prefecture, Japan

Building: Steel frame structure

Building area: 9,800 m2

Floor area: 72,500 m2

Buildings: One 12-story high-rise, one 4-story low-rise.

Capacity: 3,000 personnel

Construction start: January 2022 (scheduled)

Operation start: April 2023 (scheduled)

Investment: 34-billion yen

LINK:	http://www.toshiba.co.jp/about/press/2020_08/pr0501.htm...
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