Akihabara News (Tokyo) — After more than two years of silence, Kuwana city, Mie Prefecture, may be reemerging as a candidate city to host an Integrated Resort (IR) including a casino.
Kuwana Mayor Narutaka Ito has indicated that he is asking the prefectural government to examine the possibility of locating an IR next to Nagashima Spa Land, a major amusement park along Ise Bay in Kuwana.
The proposal that this site could host an IR was first made by Nagoya Mayor Takashi Kawamura in 2018.
Kawamura—who has long been in a bitter rivalry with Aichi Governor Hideaki Omura—had been unable to find a suitable IR candidate site near Nagoya Station, but was still determined to disrupt his governor’s tentative plan of making an IR bid at Tokoname city’s Chubu Centrair International Airport island. Kawamura therefore suggested Kuwana’s Nagashima Spa Land as an alternative candidate site.
Kuwana city, however, though geographically part of the greater Nagoya area, is not within Kawamura’s own jurisdiction, and in fact belongs to neighboring Mie Prefecture.
In December 2018, then-Mie Governor Eikei Suzuki expressed annoyance with Kawamura’s presumptuousness, stating, “We were surprised to be cited as a candidate… Our prefecture has not taken an active stance toward making such a bid.”
Kuwana Mayor Ito’s response was that the whole matter seemed “like grasping at clouds” and that “a cautious response was necessary.” Nevertheless, he continued, “We cannot say at this point if an IR bid is a good thing or a bad thing. Our policy management division is now gathering information.”
In September 2019, the Mie Prefecture Chamber of Commerce and Industry formally requested Governor Suzuki to conduct research with an eye toward making an IR bid. Anticipating the scheduled 2027 completion of the maglev Chuo Shinkansen, the business lobby argued, “it is necessary to promote large-scale projects from a medium- to long-term perspective.”
But that was where the matter seemed to end. Neither Governor Suzuki nor Mayor Ito made significant statements or took specific actions, and before long the arrival of the Covid pandemic completely overwhelmed the agenda.
Two events, however, seem to have revived the discussion at this juncture.
First, Mayor Ito has become increasingly convinced that the IR plan has merit. He has heard back from experts that the reclaimed land near Nagashima Spa Land is indeed a suitable site. The mayor commented this week that “an IR would be a catalyst for tourism and will have a great impact on the city’s finances with its declining birthrate and aging population.”
Second, Eikei Suzuki has resigned as Mie governor and been elected to the House of Representatives as a ruling party lawmaker. The new governor, Katsuyuki Ichimi, is a former bureaucrat of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. He may be more open to an IR bid than his predecessor.
Even if the new governor proves to be keen, there are still many obstacles to the realization of an IR at Kuwana in the first round of development, not least that local public opinion is untested, no process for recruiting operators has been launched, and the current application deadline is only seven months away, probably much too short a window of opportunity to succeed.
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