{"id":19912,"date":"2021-07-06T16:59:02","date_gmt":"2021-07-06T16:59:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=19912"},"modified":"2026-04-23T17:52:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T20:52:20","slug":"yokohama-new-anti-ir-candidate-emerges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/yokohama-new-anti-ir-candidate-emerges","title":{"rendered":"Yokohama: new anti-IR candidate emerges"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Yasuo Tanaka, former governor of Nagano prefecture has announced that he wants to run in the Yokohama mayoral election in August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Japan.- While the ruling Liberal Democratic Party continues to debate whether to support\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/yokohama-unexpected-anti-ir-mayoral-candidate-could-emerge\">Hachiro Okonogi<\/a>\u00a0as the party\u2019s candidate, yet another anti-IR candidate has emerged for Yokohama&#8217;s upcoming mayoral election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u00a0Yasuo Tanaka<\/strong>, the former governor of Nagano prefecture Tanaka has said <strong>he will not support the establishment of an IR in the city<\/strong>, taking the number of anti-IR candidates to seven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Okonogi himself has come out against IRs, saying:\u00a0<strong>\u201cIf I do become mayor, the first thing I will do is stop the Integrated Resort plan.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The change in political mood could put an end to Yokohama&#8217;s <strong>integrated resort bid<\/strong> since for now the only clear pro-IR candidate is <strong>Mineyuki Fukuda<\/strong>, a former Cabinet Office vice-minister who resigned from the Liberal Democratic Party to join the Party of Hope.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Current&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/hayashi-may-not-seek-reelection-yokohama-ir-in-danger\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">pro-IR mayor<\/a>&nbsp;<strong>Fumiko 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<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Genting Singapore&#8217;s IR plans could be halted<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Although\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/japan-genting-singapore-could-win-yokohama-ir-bid-analysts-say\">Genting Singapore<\/a>\u00a0was well-positioned to win Yokohama\u2019s tender after the\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/japan-galaxy-entertainment-quits-yokohama-ir-bid\">withdrawal of Galaxy Entertainment<\/a>, it seems the company&#8217;s plans could be shelved if an anti-IR candidate finally wins the mayoral elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In June, the company announced it was leading a consortium of Japanese partners, including former bidder\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/yokohama-sega-sammy-and-genting-partner-for-ir-bid\">Sega Sammy Holdings<\/a>, to create \u201c<strong>a world-class IR destination that is strategically positioned<\/strong>, sustainable and anchored on strong local collaborations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sega Sammy hailed&nbsp;<strong>Genting Singapore as the best possible partner for an integrated resort&nbsp;<\/strong>due to its successful Resorts World Sentosa operation in Singapore.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yokohama\u2019s other IR contender is&nbsp;<strong>Melco Resorts &amp; Entertainment Limited<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to analysts, Yokohama\u2019s planned IR development could<strong>&nbsp;generate a gross gaming revenue (GGR)<\/strong>&nbsp;of nearly US$7bn a year and&nbsp;<strong>US$2.7bn in net profit<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yasuo Tanaka, former governor of Nagano prefecture has announced that he wants to run in the Yokohama mayoral election in August.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":17958,"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 Yokohama mayoral election is seeing a significant rise in anti-Integrated Resort (IR) candidates, including Yasuo Tanaka and Hachiro Okonogi, which threatens to halt the city's IR development plans. This political shift could jeopardize major bids from operators like Genting Singapore and Melco Resorts & Entertainment, despite substantial projected GGR and net profit figures.","focusai_entities":"Yasuo Tanaka, Hachiro Okonogi, Mineyuki Fukuda, Fumiko Hayashi, Genting Singapore, Galaxy Entertainment, Sega Sammy Holdings, Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited, Liberal Democratic Party, Party of Hope","focusai_location":"Japan, Yokohama, Nagano, Singapore","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.95), regulator (0.85), compliance_legal (0.75), operator_casino (1.0), investor_analyst (0.98), supplier_vendor (0.9), journalist_researcher (0.95)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"IR Governance Frameworks","query":"What specific governance frameworks and regulatory hurdles might an anti-IR administration in Yokohama implement to formally halt existing bids and what precedent would this set for other potential IR sites?"},{"label":"Capital Allocation Impact","query":"What are the immediate financial implications for Genting Singapore and Melco Resorts & Entertainment's capital allocation strategies, given the increased political risk and potential cessation of the Yokohama IR project?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16338,154,158],"tags":[23632],"class_list":["post-19912","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\/19912","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=19912"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19950,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19912\/revisions\/19950"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}