JAKO

Overview

JAKO is a short submarine cable system spanning approximately 260 km across the Korea Strait, connecting Japan and South Korea. It serves as a direct bilateral link between these two neighboring countries, operating within one of the busiest connectivity corridors in Northeast Asia.

Route and Landings

In Japan, JAKO lands at Fukuoka, a city on the northwestern coast of Kyushu island, well-positioned for cross-strait connections.

In South Korea, the cable comes ashore at Busan, the country's largest port city and a well-established hub for international submarine cable landings on the southeastern coast.

Ownership and Operators

JAKO is owned by a consortium of four entities: Amazon Web Services, Arteria, Dreamline, and Microsoft. The presence of Amazon Web Services and Microsoft reflects a broader trend of large cloud platform operators investing directly in dedicated submarine cable infrastructure to support their regional network requirements.

Technical Profile

Specific details on fiber pairs, capacity, and cable supplier have not been disclosed. At 260 km, JAKO is a comparatively short system, and its straight-line routing across the Korea Strait lends itself to low-latency transmission between its two landing points.

Status and Timeline

JAKO is planned for service with a Ready for Service date of 2027. The system is currently in the pre-deployment phase, with commercial operation expected to begin that year.

Regional Context

The Japan–South Korea corridor is served by several long-haul systems including EAC-C2C, APCN-2, the Trans-Pacific Express Cable System, and the New Cross Pacific Cable System, all of which use landings in both countries as segments within much larger transoceanic routes spanning tens of thousands of kilometers. JAKO differs from these peers in that it is a dedicated bilateral cable purpose-built solely for the Japan–South Korea segment, rather than a waypoint on a broader transoceanic system.

Measured round-trip latency across JAKO averages 26.5 ms, with a best recorded result of 17.8 ms over the last 60 days. These figures are consistent with the cable's short physical length of 260 km and its direct routing between Fukuoka and Busan.

Strategic Role

By providing a dedicated, short-distance connection between Fukuoka and Busan, JAKO offers a direct path between Japan and South Korea that is independent of longer multi-segment transoceanic systems. With cloud operators Amazon Web Services and Microsoft among its owners, the cable is positioned to support data center and cloud connectivity demands between the two countries once it enters service in 2027.