{"id":22509,"date":"2021-09-10T13:45:09","date_gmt":"2021-09-10T16:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=22509"},"modified":"2026-04-23T15:47:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T18:47:22","slug":"yokohama-ir-plans-to-be-cancelled-from-october-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/yokohama-ir-plans-to-be-cancelled-from-october-1","title":{"rendered":"Yokohama IR plans to be cancelled from October 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Takeharu Yamanaka, Yokohama&#8217;s newly mayor, has announced that the city&#8217;s IR plans will be cancelled from October 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Japan.- Less than a month after winning Yokohama\u2019s mayoral elections,&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/yokohama-anti-ir-candidate-wins-mayoral-elections\">Takeharu Yamanaka<\/a>&nbsp;has announced the city will withdraw its integrated resort plans and disband the IR promotion office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Takeharu Yamanaka<\/strong>, who was chosen as&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/yokohama-opposition-may-have-found-its-anti-ir-mayoral-candidate\">the candidate to represent the CDPJ,<\/a> was known to disagree with the development of an integrated resort, arguing that it could cause issues with gambling addiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Melco Resorts &amp; Entertainment and&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/yokohama-sega-sammy-and-genting-partner-for-ir-bid\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Genting Singapore<\/a>&nbsp;were the two remaining candidates to be Yokohama\u2019s partner for its bid.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/japan-galaxy-entertainment-quits-yokohama-ir-bid\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Galaxy Entertainment<\/a>&nbsp;had already dropped its bid claiming the business climate had been&nbsp;<strong>\u201cexacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.\u201d<\/strong>&nbsp;Another contender,&nbsp;<strong>Shotoku,&nbsp;<\/strong>was dismissed after the Yokohama city government said&nbsp;<strong>its bid was below minimum requirements<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Genting Singapore withdraws from Yokohama&#8217;s IR bid<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>After the announcement made by Takeharu Yamanaka, the company issued a statement saying: &#8220;<strong>Genting Singapore has shelved its effort in Yokohama\u2019s request-for-proposal (RFP) process&nbsp;<\/strong>for an integrated resort.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The casino operator added: &#8220;We are surprised and disappointed by the unexpected turn of events leading to the city\u2019s decision to cancel the Yokohama IR bid.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It said the IR development could have benefited the city and its community, and at the same time could have made Yokohama a world-class tourism destination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In June, analysts suggested that Yokohama\u2019s possible withdrawal from the IR contest could leave the door open for Tokyo to bid for an&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/could-tokyo-replace-yokohama-in-japans-ir-project\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">integrated resort licence<\/a>. However, a survey by a local newspaper found that&nbsp;<strong>66 per cent in Tokyo are against an IR development<\/strong>&nbsp;and only 24 per cent are in favour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Takeharu Yamanaka, Yokohama&#8217;s newly mayor, has announced that the city&#8217;s IR plans will be cancelled from October 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":22547,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Yokohama's newly elected mayor, Takeharu Yamanaka, has cancelled the city's Integrated Resort (IR) plans, effective October 1, leading to the disbandment of the IR promotion office. This decision impacts major casino operators like Melco Resorts & Entertainment and Genting Singapore, who were bidding partners, and prompts Genting Singapore to withdraw from the RFP process. The cancellation may redirect focus to other potential IR locations in Japan, such as Tokyo, despite local opposition.","focusai_entities":"Takeharu Yamanaka, Melco Resorts & Entertainment, Genting Singapore, Galaxy Entertainment, Shotoku, CDPJ","focusai_location":"Yokohama, Japan, Tokyo","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (0.85), compliance_legal (0.7), operator_casino (1.0), investor_analyst (0.95), supplier_vendor (0.75), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Impact on Japan IR Strategy","query":"What are the revised probabilities for other Japanese cities, particularly Tokyo, to successfully pursue an IR license following Yokohama's withdrawal, considering local public sentiment?"},{"label":"Operator Capital Reallocation","query":"How will Melco Resorts & Entertainment and Genting Singapore reallocate the capital and strategic resources previously earmarked for the Yokohama IR bid, and what are their next target markets for expansion?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16338,154,158],"tags":[23687,23632],"class_list":["post-22509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-asia-news","category-legislation-news","category-slider-home","tag-genting-singapore","tag-integrated-resorts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22509","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=22509"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22548,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22509\/revisions\/22548"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}