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Apple building funky-looking R&D center in Yokohama, Japan, opening next year

This render provides our first look at Apple’s plan to build a sizeable new R&D center in Japan. We first heard that Apple would be building a facility “on par with Apple’s biggest R&D centers in Asia” from the Japanese Prime Minister late last year.

Japanese news site NHK reports that the center will be built on the outskirts of Yokohama, the second biggest city in Japan after nearby Tokyo. The city’s mayor announced in a news conference that Apple had purchased the remains of a Panasonic factory on the site, and would be building a 25,000 square meter facility over four floors. The scale of the building would suggest that it could accommodate around several hundred employees, though Apple may of course be allowing for future expansion.

Unsurprisingly, the planned building is said to be environmentally friendly, designed to use low levels of energy, recycled water and trees planted on the roof. Construction is scheduled to begin before the end of the year, completing at some point next year.

Yokohama has a population of 3.7M people, and is one of Japan’s major port cities.

While Apple’s new spaceship campus will allow it to house many more of its employees on a single site, having satellite offices around the world allows Apple to tap into local expertise and hire talent who might be unwilling to relocate to the USA.

Other satellite R&D facilities include chip development in both Israel and Florida, software engineering in Seattle, Siri work in Boston, an Apple University program in China, likely image analysis work in Sweden and unspecified R&D offices in England, probably intended to tap academic research expertise.

Via Macotakara

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Comments

  1. 1sugomac - 9 years ago

    They should have made a scaled down version of the mothership campus in Cupertino. They could then reuse that same design at each of their international research centers.

  2. chatii - 9 years ago

    Im live in yokohama, The new facility is very close from the house . (3min walk)
    I am very looking forward to built is so cool building

    • AeronPeryton - 9 years ago

      Would it be asking to much for you to periodically send in pictures of the construction process? :D

  3. “Other overseas R&D facilities include chip development in both Israel and Florida, software engineering in Seattle, Siri work in Boston…”

    Hmmm. The melting of Antarctica and consequent North American coastal flooding must be happening faster than expected.

  4. rettun1 - 9 years ago

    Does it run on 100% renewable energy?

    • patthecarnut - 9 years ago

      I runs on the profits from selling a $350 watch for $17,000. Literally! They burn the cash to generate power.

  5. rgbfoundry - 9 years ago

    Apple’s too secretive to have such and open floorplan in a R&D center. Rightly so, I think. Maybe the facade just looks like glass, but they’ll have still photos on the backside of each panel showing staff working with 1st gen iPods! :) Maybe a snarky message like “THINK FOR YOURSELF” for would-be spies!

  6. ateterine - 9 years ago

    Correct me if I’m wrong, but ‘biggest city’ is wrong. Correct way is ‘largest city’, yes?

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Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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