Japan issued on Tuesday a Cabinet Order confirming May 6, 2027 to November 5, 2027, as the second-round application period available for local governments interested in hosting an integrated resort (IR) with casino.
The order takes effect on Friday (March 13), according to information reviewed by GGRAsia’s Japan correspondent.
The second-round application timetable had been proposed in a draft order made public in December by the Japan Tourism Agency, which is under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. Those are the bodies that will assess any local-government applications.
Under the country’s Act on Development of Specified Integrated Resort Districts – more commonly known as the IR District Development Act – the local government areas entitled to apply are either prefectures or so-called ‘ordinance-designated cities’. They would need to partner with private-sector investors.
The Japan Tourism Agency has not disclosed whether particular prefectures or ordinance-designated cities are interested in submitting a so-called IR District Development Plan to the authorities for consideration.
On February 25 this year, Japan’s Aichi prefecture opened a request-for-opinion period regarding its draft implementation policy for a possible casino resort on a landfill island that is home to its Chubu Centrair International Airport.
Two days later, Hokkaido prefecture said it would revise by this autumn its “basic stance” regarding a possible tilt at having an integrated resort.
On February 18, the second cabinet of pro-IR Liberal Democratic Party politician Sanae Takaichi was inaugurated, after she won a ‘supermajority’ in a snap parliamentary election that month.
Her instructions to the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Yasushi Kaneko, included that his department should “promote the development of IRs and realise attractive stay-type tourism which is highly competitive in the international market”.
The first round for IR applications saw the process conclude in December 2023 with only Osaka chosen out of two prefectures that applied. The JPY1.51-trillion (US$9.56-billion currently) MGM Osaka is due to launch in late-2030.
Recently, Macau casino business Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd – which had been interested in Japan in the run up to the first application round – said the country remained a “very attractive proposition”.
Soo Kim, chairman of United States-based casino and online gaming operator Bally’s Corp – which had expressed interest previously in the Asian nation’s casino liberalisation – recently described Japan is “an extremely attractive market” for IR investment.
