Japan

The Wakayama city government and Nankai Electric Railway Co. have agreed to launch a joint survey on a Bus Rapid Transit system that could carry large numbers of visitors between Wakayama Station and Marina City, the prospective site for an IR.

Unlike the very successful effort to gather signatures for a referendum on IR development, the signature-gathering campaign to recall Yokohama Mayor Fumiko Hayashi is limping its way toward its December 5 deadline, clearly destined to fall far short of the signature threshold that it needed.

Tomakomai city, which is still trying to gain Hokkaido Governor Naomichi Suzuki’s support to make an IR bid, has indicated that the city is willing in principle to bear the maintenance cost of roads, water, and sewage facilities.

Understanding that the decisions on how IRs will be taxed in Japan is not an issue that can be left hanging, the senior ruling party politician Akira Amari has stated that these policies will be fixed before IR operators have been selected by the local governments. He later clarified that the policy would be decided next month.

If the IR policy delays have created a threat to Yokohama’s plans that are primarily political, the deepest concerns for Osaka arguably relate to its effect on transportation infrastructure to the man-made island of Yumeshima.

The board of Dynam Japan Holdings, the largest pachinko firm if measured by the number of its outlets, has provided some insight into how this industry has fared in the year of the coronavirus.

The Nagasaki Prefectural Government has published a revised timeline for IR development, including the launch of its RFP process in January.

The Yokohama municipal government has announced that it will shortly launch its committee tasked with IR operator selection. The first meeting is scheduled for November 30.

Barring some truly dramatic event, it is already clear Yokohama faces a year of battle over IR development in 2021, pushing other public issues to the margins. Yokohama Mayor Fumiko Hayashi’s mayoral term comes to an end in August 2021.

Yokohama Harbor Resort Association Chairman Yukio Fujiki has reiterated his adamant opposition to the construction of a casino at Yamashita Pier, going so far as to declare that he would give his life to stop it.