More than 70% of members of the Hokkaido prefectural parliament’s Liberal Democratic Party attended a working group on Monday pushing for an integrated resort (IR) with casinos on Japan’s northernmost island (pictured).
According to information reviewed by GGRAsia’s Japan correspondent, 38 out of 53 members of the 100-seat Hokkaido Prefectural Council attended the IR Policy Working Group.
Only 15 LDP lawmakers attended the first working group meeting since its launch in December. 슬롯사이트 순위
Makoto Nakagawa, who served as secretary-general of the IR Promotion Bureau at the national level under the Cabinet Office and oversaw the national IR law, participated as a speaker at the recent working group meeting.
A third meeting will be held in the fall, according to Ito Joichi, head of a working group for the Hokkaido Liberal Democratic Party. The group aims to eventually establish a caucus group in parliament.
The Hokkaido Liberal Democratic Party included aspirations for regional IR in its April 2019 policy declaration for the prefectural integrated elections.
However, in November 2019, the governor of Hokkaido abandoned the opportunity to participate in the first round of applications by local authorities for the right to host a Japanese casino resort.
Eventually, there were only two applications in Japan, and only one of the applications from Osaka Prefecture and the city was approved by the state government for linkage with MGM Resorts International and its private sector partners led by Orix Japan. The scheme is expected to start in 2030.
In May this year, Norifumi Ide, a former senior official at Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, said the government should soon start a second round of voting to allow communities across the country to apply for casino resort attractions.
Tomohiro Takagi, a partner at law firm Nishimura & Asahi (Japan), said in a recent comment to GGRAsia that if Japan starts new applications, it will be able to ease the local government’s non-game infrastructure requirements through regulations, not changes to IR laws.
Casino resorts have been touted as routes to promote the host’s economic development and increase the number of international tourists. Casino resorts aim to attract 60 million visitors a year by 2030.
On June 20, Ichiro Takahashi, director of the Japan Tourism Organization, said that achieving the goal will be “tough.”
He also cited Kyodo news agency as saying that if the current pace of arrivals growth continues, the number of Japanese inbound tourists in 2024 could exceed the annual record of 31.88 million recorded in 2019.