Akihabara News (Tokyo) — New Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has renewed the Japanese government’s commitment to move forward with the construction of casino resorts.
Answering questions at a plenary session of the House of Representatives, Kishida declared that Integrated Resorts are “a key initiative to make the country a tourism leader in the world” and that they “should greatly contribute to local economies by attracting many visitors.”
While Kishida’s comments represent continuity with the policies of his two predecessors, Shinzo Abe and Yoshihide Suga, he had not previously made public his view of the IR initiative.
Under the terms of the July 2018 IR Implementation Act, up to three casino resorts may be licensed in the first round of development. There are currently only three local governments that are expected to apply for such a license—Osaka, Wakayama, and Nagasaki.
All three of these candidate have recently chosen their IR consortium partners and are in the process of compiling materials for their licensing bids. The national government’s window for receiving the applications opened at the beginning of this month and the deadline is April 28 of next year.
The central government is expected to announce its decision on which IRs will receive a license sometime in the summer or autumn of 2022, though the precise date remains undecided.
The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and other left-leaning opposition parties have prepared legislation to abolish the plan to build casino resorts, should they unexpectedly prevail in general elections.
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