SMC Corporation will be relocating and expanding its current Tsukuba Technical Centre in Japan to open the Kashiwanoha Campus New Technical Centre in the ‘Kashiwanoha Smart City’ in 2025.
Equipped with the latest R&D facilities, and strengthening cooperation with technical centres around the world, the new Technical Centre will be based on the concept of a ‘smart wellness office’.
Here, employees can work in good health and comfort in an environment that enhances creativity and productivity. Its aim is also to connect customers and engineering staff from across the globe.
The outline of the new premises is as follows: three 5-storey buildings; a site area of 42,794m2; 1300 employees; start of construction in December 2023; end of construction in August 2025.
“SMC’s automatic control equipment is a product that can contribute to solving social issues around global warming and a declining workforce, and its demand is expected to grow in future,” said Yoshitada Doi, managing executive officer and senior general manager of engineering for SMC.
“The current Technical Centre has become too small for our growing business, and we have been considering expanding and relocating our R&D base. Kashiwanoha Smart City, with its rich natural environment, high concentration of cutting-edge research institutions, and convenient transportation access is the ideal location.
“We want this new R&D base to be the centre of innovation, where talented employees from around the world can gather in a healthy, comfortable and efficient environment, and are motivated to work, and can interact openly with various people.
“We will also create an R&D base that our customers can rely on us in terms of its business continuity plan.”
Centred on the Kashiwanoha Campus Station, this area aims to become a smart city – a city that creates a vision for the future of the world, and promotes urban development based on the pillars of environmental symbiosis, health and longevity, and new industry creation through public, private and academic collaboration.
Located 30 minutes from central Tokyo, the are boasts a natural environment with easy access from Haneda and Narita airports, and is home to some of Japan’s leading research institutions, including the University of Tokyo, Chiba University, National Cancer Centre Hospital East, and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology.
