While the U.S. government is just beginning to dip its toes into cloud computing, Japan's government is already embarking on ambitious plans to build out a private cloud environment that could eventually host all Japanese government software.

Japan's cloud, dubbed the Kasumigaseki Cloud, is part of a larger government project called the Digital Japan Creation Project that aims to help spur economic recovery in Japan with aggressive IT investment.

That larger project aims to generate tens of billions of dollars worth of new IT market revenue and create 300,000 to 400,000 new jobs within three years. It will also more than double the size of the IT market in Japan by 2020 by investing in research and development of promising new technologies, increasing support of IT education, encouraging green IT, building more ubiquitous broadband links, and taking other steps, including the creation of Japan's mega-private cloud.

"Accelerating the use of [communications and technology] nationwide will require the government to take the initiative in implementing measures," the Japanese government said in a document outlining the Digital Japan Creation Project.

The Kasumigaseki Cloud will be deployed in stages through 2015 and aims to cut development and operating costs while also improving performance. The cloud will require Japan to create new platforms for shared services and consolidate hardware, including the possible building of new data centers. The document is short on details, but other potential benefits of the Kasumigaseki Cloud will include decreased operating costs through the use of only required resources and by making the maintenance and management of individual systems unnecessary.

The new data center or centers being built to support the Kasumigaseki Cloud also will use green technology to help cut costs. The document says the data centers will be built in cold regions, will use wind and solar power, will run on DC power, and may be placed underground where temperatures are stable.

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