Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Multiple new accusations of unethical and potentially illegal behavior have emerged in recent days and weeks, intensifying public skepticism about the legalization of casino gambling within the Integrated Resorts (IR) framework.
It should be noted that the recent accusations come on top of the most serious case to date—in December 2019 it emerged that a Chinese sports lottery firm based in Shenzhen, then named 500 Dot Com, had bribed multiple Japanese politicians in pursuit of an IR license in Okinawa or Hokkaido. Most notably, this led to the arrest of former Senior Vice-Minister at the Cabinet Office Tsukasa Akimoto, who headed for over a year the national government’s IR policy development.
None of the new probity accusations yet rise to that level, but they may serve to reinforce the “dirty image” of the casino industry in the minds of many Japanese.
One of the new accusations has already been covered by Akihabara News. CEO Alex Yemenidjian of Oshidori International Development, one of the aggrieved competitors in the Nagasaki IR race, was subjected to anonymous email accusations regarding his connections to the legal marijuana industry in Nevada and other vague inferences of wrongdoing.
In their answers to our inquiry, Oshidori contended that it knows “for a fact” that the Nagasaki Prefectural Government was behind this smear campaign.
Journalist Muhammad Cohen broke a rather similar story for ICE365 about other anonymous emails circulating that target accusations of “glaring probity risks” against former Las Vegas Sands President and Chief Operating Officer William Weidner, who has been involved as an adviser and a prospective participant in the Clairvest consortium in Wakayama Prefecture.
Like the accusations against Yemenidjian, these accusations appear be rather vague and more of a smear than anything that contains hard evidence of wrongdoing. Weidner himself described them to Cohen as “sophisticated but unsubstantiated name calling.”
While the credibility of such anonymous email accusations is certainly open to question, this kind of drama will certainly darken the already dark image that many Japanese hold when it comes to inviting foreign corporations to come to Japan and establish casino resorts.
A final accusation that is now breaking is much more specific.
Shukan Bunshun, one of the Japanese weekly magazines famous for triggering politician resignations, is now pointing its dreaded finger at Yokohama Vice-Mayor Toshihide Hirahara, who has been leading the city’s IR development project.
The accusation against Hirahara is that he was treated to entertainment at high-class restaurants by a certain businessperson on four occasions in 2016 at a total cost of ¥610,000 (US$5,600). During one of these meals, Hirahara allegedly passed along confidential information to his host regarding some of the regulatory measures on IR floor area ratios then being set by the government.
Shukan Bunshun further hints that there are ties between these events and Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and some of his aides.
Yokohama, of course, is already on its way out of the Japan IR race after the election last Sunday of Takeharu Yamanaka as the new mayor, but the political impact of a fresh corruption scandal touching the prime minister and his inner circle would certainly be serious.
Recent Integrated Resorts Related Articles
Wakayama, Osaka Reaffirm IR Intentions
Mayoral Election Slams the Door on Yokohama IR
Accusations Fly at Nagasaki IR Operator Selection
Oshidori Lingers in Nagasaki IR Race
Special External Reference
Muhammad Cohen, Anonymous Documents Attack Japan IR Bid Adviser William Weidner, ICE360, August 25, 2021.