Japan could delay IR licence process

Japanese authorities are considering a potential delay to the country’s schedule for developing integrated resorts (IR).

Japan.- Japan’s Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Kazuyoshi Akaba, has announced that he in talks with prefectures about possibly changing the timetable for planned IR developments.

He said he had spoken with prefectural authorities in the areas that have begun preparatory work for licensing IRs to private partners about moving the schedule back.

Yokohama, Osaka and Nagasaki among others have already made some progress on initiating the process to find private partners for the IR developments in their areas. Some prefectures decided to delay the process owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, while others have continued to push forwards.

The national timetable stated that prefectures interested in hosting IR developments had until January 2021 to present their plans to license up to three projects to the national authorities for approval.

Akaba has now said that in light of the delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the national government was considering changing that original schedule.

Officials from the national government said previously that they had contacted local officials from respectively Osaka, Yokohama, Wakayama, Nagasaki, Tokyo and Nagoya seeking insight on the challenges Covid-19 has posed to meeting the original timetable.