Akihabara News (Tokyo) — The governors of Wakayama and Osaka prefectures have reaffirmed their intentions to build Integrated Resorts (IR) including casinos in the wake of the Yokohama mayoral elections.
The decisive defeat of Yokohama IR champion Fumiko Hayashi’s mayoral election bid has sent shockwaves through the Asian casino industry, reigniting doubts about the national policy now that there are no longer any local government candidates in eastern Japan.
All three of the remaining candidate sites are packed in the more conservative western half of the country—Osaka, Wakayama, and Nagasaki. These three prefectural governments are expected to apply for the three IR licenses that, according to the current schedule, the national government plans to issue in the second half of next year.
Wakayama Governor Yoshinobu Nisaka has been the most outspoken in his response to the Yokohama election results, declaring, “There may be more people who believe that IRs are not good, but it’s a great opportunity for investment.”
Nisaka went on to suggest that Wakayama, unlike Yokohama, really needs something like an IR for its future economic prosperity. “If this were a prosperous region, I wouldn’t be promoting it,” the governor stated, “but when I think about the development of Wakayama Prefecture, we need it to arrest our decline.”
For his part, Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura played down the political events in Yokohama, even suggesting that the coronavirus issue may have been more central to the mayoral election than the IR issue.
“I do not believe that the Yokohama mayoral election will have a major impact on Osaka’s IR project,” Yoshimura said. “Many people are worried about addiction issues and I would like to tackle that topic. There are a lot of positives too, so I would like us to proceed with proper explanations.”
Nagasaki Governor Hodo Nakamura has not given any public response to the Yokohama elections, but there is every reason to expect that his stance is basically the same as the other pro-IR governors.
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