Japan’s newly elected prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, could accelerate the drive for integrated casino resorts (IRs) in the country.
On Tuesday, the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) became the 104th Japanese prime minister and the first woman to hold the post. Her victory followed a last-minute coalition between the LDP and the pro-IR Japan Innovation Party, or Ishin.
Takaichi has not taken an official position on IRs, Singapore-style resort complexes anchored by casinos. But the new LDP-Ishin alliance – and Takaichi’s long association with former prime minister Shinzo Abe – suggests she will support their development.
An Abe protégé who twice served as his communications minister, Takaichi backed the former prime minister’s policy of endorsing IRs as a way to boost foreign investment and tourism. Abe saw tourism as “a multiplying catalyst for vitalising local economies”.
In 2016, with the introduction of the Integrated Resort Promotion Law, he pledged to “promote resorts offering leisure and recreation services all in one place, which will attract visitors from all over the world”.
Slow track to fast track?
In 2018, Japan’s Diet approved the development of three IRs around the country, with the potential for more after seven years. Interest at first was sky-high, as analysts projected stratospheric revenues as high as $40 billion. But Covid-19 quenched investors’ ardor and shut down the bidding process.
Since then, only one IR has been approved, MGM Osaka, a joint venture of MGM Resorts International and Orix Corp. The $8.9 billion complex is now under construction on Yumeshima Island on Osaka Bay. Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura, incidentally a key proponent of IRs, was installed as head of Ishin in 2022.
Last December, when Japan lawmakers approved the appointment of new gaming commissioners, hopes for a fresh bidding process revived. The support of Takaichi and the new ruling coalition could be the fuel to restart a long-stalled industry.
Japan’s new prime minister is seen as a proponent of integrated resort development from her alliance with the pro-IR Ishin Party and connection to late PM Shinzo Abe.