Urban Planning

New Sustainable Smart Town Planned for Yokohama

The Tsunashima Sustainable Smart Town (SST) Council and its lead organizers, Nomura Real Estate Development Co. Ltd. and Panasonic Corporation, has announced a concept plan for the development of a new smart town that will be built in the Tsunashima neighborhood of Yokohama. The environment-friendly smart town will include a town energy center, a hydrogen refuelling station, a dormitory for international students, a “smart” condominium building and next-generation shopping center. It is slated for completion in 2018.

Tsunashima is a stop on the Tokyu Toyoko line, about 22 minutes from Shibuya.

The sustainable smart town will be built at the site of a former Panasonic factory and will consist of residential and non-residential facilities.

4 Tsunashima-higashi, Kohoku Ward, Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture
The Tsunashima Sustainable Smart Town (SST) will be located at 4 Tsunashima-higashi, Kohoku Ward, Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture. Image: Panasonic press release

Yokohama City will support the Tsunashima SST project as the city pushes forward to become a “FutureCity,” a model city selected by the Japanese government to address common challenges including the environment.

The Town Development Concept has set targets for the SST, including numerical goals, such as a 40% reduction of CO2 emissions (based on the levels in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2006) and usage rates of 30% or higher for renewable energies.

Notably, it also stipulates the rules for managing the town’s landscapes and design and for realising sustainable and comfortable lifestyles.

The sustainable city will consist of six major facilities and initiatives:

Town energy center

With a view to realizing a smart energy network, this urban energy center will be located in the center of the city to provide the entire town with low carbon energy, with disaster-resistant energy systems.

The center utilizes a high-efficienty gas co-generation system using clean city gas as fuel. This co-generation system efficiently utilizes heat produced during power generation for cooling, heating, and hot water supply.

Gas supply utilizes highly earthquake-resistant medium-pressure gas pipelines to help ensure lifelines to stay open even during natural disasters.

Hydrogen refueling station

The hydrogen service station provides not only hydrogen but also information about hydrogen as a communications hub to the community to lead a future hydrogen-based society.

The station supplies hydrogen safely to fuel cell vehicles by adopting a hydrogen safety control system that integrates earthquake-resistant design and various types of sensors.

The SST is also considering supplying hydrogen to the fuel cell systems for commercial use to generate electricity.

Town management center

This center provides information on community events inside the town, town energy, and evacuation if an emergency occurs.

Plans are for the center to include integrated control of security cameras overseeing the town’s safety and security, guided tours for business customers and provision of office functions.

International student dormitory

This international student dormitory will combine traditional Japanese culture and advanced technologies to foster “well-rounded internationally-oriented people for the future society”.

The dormitory aims to provide a safe, secure and clean living environment for students. It will include

  • Multi-signage systems that let students control the exchange of information and interactions inside the dorm.
  • Light controllers that can be adapted to various situations, depending on how the space is being used.
  • Security systems
  • Air purifiers to remove viruses and de-odorize quickly

Smart shopping center

This is an environment-friendly next-generation shopping center.

The goal is for this commercial facility to become a new flagship model of a food and health center for the smart town and the surrounding area, as well as serving as a center for activities to cultivate the community.

Unique features of this shopping center will include:

  • Solar power generation and air conditioning systems that run on waste heat from the town energy center.
  • Town Lockers where people can pick up products ordered from online supermarkets.
  • A multi-signage system that offers information about the store and also about the weather, disaster prevention and traffic, and evacuation guidance in emergencies.
  • Multi-function monitoring cameras that provide customer security and can be used for marketing. Editor’s note: Wow! Cameras that monitor your behaviour, then turn around and market to you (perhaps based on your behaviour?).
  • Multi-lingual translation systems to handle the increasing number of tourists.

Smart condominium

This smart(sustainable, next-generation) condominium will be developed by Nomura Real Estate and MID Urban Development.

Solar panels and storage batteries will be installed in the common area, allowing for efficient use of renewable energy. When linked with the elevators, this system will enable them to work in case of power outage.

Each apartment in the building will have EneFarm home-use fuel cells and a Smart HEMS (Home Energy Management System). For more information about EneFarms and HEMS, please see this article: The Present and Future of Net Zero Energy Houses in Japan.

Apartments in Tsunashima

Tsunashima is a stop on the Tokyu Toyoko line, about 22 minutes from Shibuya, in Kohoku ward, Yokohama.

Apartments here start in the low 40,000 yen ($357) range.

Click here to search for: Apartments in Tsunashima

You may also be interested in: Next Tokyo 2045 Master Plan Envisions Mile-High Skyscraper in Tokyo Bay


Please enable Javascript to send comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.