The ruling Liberal Democratic Party has an anti-IR faction who supports Hachiro Okonogi as the party’s candidate, but many politicians are against the proposal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Japan.- As Yokohama’s mayoral election approaches, doubts about the candidates remain, especially inside the\u00a0ruling Liberal Democratic Party<\/strong>. It’s opted for Hachiro Okonogi<\/a>\u00a0as its candidate, but\u00a0a pro-IR faction is against the choice<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yomiuri Shinbun and other local media have reported that the ruling party may finally allow its members to vote for whomever they choose<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n However, the pro-IR faction has not chosen a candidate to rally around. Current\u00a0pro-IR mayor<\/a>\u00a0Fumiko Hayashi<\/strong>, who is approaching the end of her third term, has not yet clarified whether she intends to run for reelection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For now, the only pro-IR candidate is\u00a0Mineyuki Fukuda<\/strong>, a former ruling party Cabinet Office vice-minister who resigned to join the Party of Hope.\u00a0It seems unlikely that the pro-IR Liberal Democratic Party faction would support him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The other candidates for election are against Yokohama’s IR plans. Okonogi<\/strong>, chairman of the National Public Safety Commission, has said: \u201cIf I do become mayor, the first thing I will do is stop the integrated resort plan.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, Takeharu Yamanaka<\/a>, who has been chosen as the candidate to represent the\u00a0Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan<\/strong>, is known to disagree with the development of an integrated resort, arguing that it could cause gambling addiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some analysts have suggested\u00a0Tokyo could step into the contest to host an IR<\/a>,\u00a0but a survey by a newspaper found that\u00a066 per cent are against an IR development<\/strong>\u00a0and only 24 per cent of residents are in favour, which makes the chances seem remote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n