The opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan is expected to announce that Takeharu Yamanaka will be its candidate for the mayoral elections in August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Japan.- After a long search, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ) <\/strong>may have finally found its anti-IR candidate for the mayoral elections to be held in Yokohama on August 22<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although there’s been no official announcement, Asian Gaming Brief reports that Takeharu Yamanaka<\/strong> has been chosen as the candidate to represent the CDPJ<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yamanaka is 48 years old and works as a professor at Yokohama City University<\/strong>. He is specialized in public health and medical statistics and has recently been working on anti-Covid-19 countermeasures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He’s known to disagree with the development of an integrated resort, arguing that it could cause issues with gambling addiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The CDPJ had\u00a0hoped to select a unified opposition candidate by April<\/strong> to stand on an anti-IR ticket. The second-largest opposition party in the country,\u00a0the Japan Communist Party, offered to withdraw its own candidate to give more chances to a single\u00a0anti-IR candidate.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Although the Japan Communist Party <\/strong>has not made any comments regarding Yamanaka yet, it is expected the party will support him as a unique candidate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s also expected that Yukio Fujiki<\/strong>, chairman of the Yokohama Port Harbor Resort Association and a strong opponent against the development of an IR<\/a>, may also give his approval to the selection of Yamanaka as the main opposition candidate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yokohama’s current pro-IR mayor<\/a> Fumiko Hayashi<\/strong> has expressed her decision to run for a fourth term<\/strong>. However, the Liberal Democratic Party believes she is unlikely to win the elections and is seeking another candidate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Apart from Hayashi and Yamanaka, there are three other<\/strong><\/strong> candidates in the running, and two of them are opposed to plans for an IR<\/strong>. The other says he is neutral and would define his opinion if he wins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The other two independent anti-IR candidates <\/strong>who have launched their respective campaigns are Masataka Ota<\/a>, a member of the Constitutional Democratic Party, and Akiko Fujimura<\/a>, the representative director of an animal welfare group, who has said she will order the immediate cancellation of the city\u2019s IR project<\/strong> if she wins the election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan is expected to announce that Takeharu Yamanaka will be its candidate for the mayoral elections in August.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":18283,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan has selected Takeharu Yamanaka as its anti-Integrated Resort (IR) candidate for the Yokohama mayoral elections, consolidating opposition against the proposed gaming vertical. This development significantly impacts the regulatory and investment landscape for the Yokohama IR project, as the incumbent pro-IR mayor, Fumiko Hayashi, faces a challenging re-election bid amidst a fragmented pro-IR stance within the Liberal Democratic Party. The election outcome will be pivotal for stakeholders assessing market entry and project viability within Japan's nascent gaming market.","focusai_entities":"Takeharu Yamanaka, Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, Yokohama City University, Japan Communist Party, Yukio Fujiki, Yokohama Port Harbor Resort Association, Fumiko Hayashi, Liberal Democratic Party, Masataka Ota, Akiko Fujimura, Asian Gaming Brief","focusai_location":"Japan, Yokohama","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (0.8), compliance_legal (0.8), operator_casino (0.95), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.75), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"IR Project Viability?","query":"What is the projected impact of a unified anti-IR candidate on the timeline and ultimate viability of the Yokohama Integrated Resort project, considering potential shifts in local government policy and public sentiment?"},{"label":"Operator Strategy Adjustments?","query":"How might prospective IR operators in Yokohama adjust their market entry strategies and investment commitments in response to the increasing political opposition and the potential for a non-pro-IR mayoral administration?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16338,154,158],"tags":[23632],"class_list":["post-19108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-asia-news","category-legislation-news","category-slider-home","tag-integrated-resorts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19108"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19157,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19108\/revisions\/19157"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Pro-IR Yokohama candidate to be defined<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n