Pro-IR Yokohama mayor Fumiko Hayashi has confirmed she intends to run for a fourth term in office at elections in August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Japan.- Yokohama’s current\u00a0pro-IR mayor<\/a>\u00a0Fumiko Hayashi\u00a0<\/strong>has finally confirmed that she wants to run for reelection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hayashi will be backed by the Yokohama Chamber of Commerce & Industry and by part of the\u00a0ruling Liberal Democratic Party<\/strong>. Some of the party’s members have shown a preference for anti-IR\u00a0Hachiro Okonogi<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to local media reports, Hayashi could win due to a large number of anti-IR candidates<\/strong>. However, due to the large number of people who are against the development of an IR, she is unlikely to win over 50 per cent of the votes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anti-IR candidates include Takeharu Yamanaka<\/strong>, who has been chosen as\u00a0the 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\u2019s known to disagree with the development of an integrated resort, arguing that it could cause issues with gambling addiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other candidates include Masataka Ota<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Akiko Fujimura<\/a>. The first is 75 years old and a member of the Constitutional Democratic Party. He has been elected to the\u00a0Yokohama City Council for 11 four-year periods<\/strong>\u00a0since the 1970s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ota said: \u201cIf I become the mayor of Yokohama, the casino issue will disappear <\/strong>that very day. To put it plainly, I will not do casinos.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n