{"id":22551,"date":"2021-09-13T07:54:03","date_gmt":"2021-09-13T10:54:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=22551"},"modified":"2026-04-23T15:46:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T18:46:07","slug":"melco-to-continue-exploring-ir-opportunities-in-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/melco-to-continue-exploring-ir-opportunities-in-japan","title":{"rendered":"Melco to continue exploring IR opportunities in Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Lawrence Ho Yau Lung, chairman and chief executive of casino operator Melco Resorts and Entertainment Ltd, has said the company will seek other opportunities to develop an integrated resort in Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Japan.- Although<strong>\u00a0plans to build an integrated resort in Yokohama<\/strong>\u00a0have been shelved after newly elected mayor Takeharu Yamanaka&#8217;s decision to cancel the city\u2019s\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/yokohama-ir-plans-to-be-cancelled-from-october-1\">IR bid<\/a>,\u00a0<strong>Melco Resorts &amp; Entertainment\u00a0<\/strong>will continue looking for an opportunity in Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Lawrence Ho Yau Lung<\/strong>, Melco Resorts and Entertainment Ltd CEO, has confirmed<strong>\u00a0the company will withdraw from the IR bid<\/strong>\u00a0due to Yamanaka&#8217;s announcement and will close its Yokohama office, but he said the company will maintain a representative office in Tokyo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, he said: &#8220;Melco has been working on the ground in Japan for over a decade.\u00a0<strong>We firmly believe in the country\u2019s long-term potential and remain committed to exploring opportunities<\/strong>\u00a0to develop the world\u2019s best-integrated resort in Japan.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He added: &#8220;While we are disappointed, we are grateful for the friendships that<strong>\u00a0we have formed throughout the process and express our sincere gratitude to the people\u00a0<\/strong>and government of Yokohama, as well as our business and community partners, for their tremendous support.&#8221;<\/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 of Tokyo are against an IR development<\/strong>&nbsp;and only 24 per cent are in favour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Sega Sammy Holdings Inc also scraps plans in Yokohama<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sega Sammy Holdings Inc<\/strong>\u00a0has also suspended its plans for Yokohama. The company said the impact on consolidated operating results for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2022 will be minimal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In June,&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/yokohama-sega-sammy-and-genting-partner-for-ir-bid\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sega Sammy<\/a><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>had announced that it had entered into a partnership with&nbsp;<strong>Genting Singapore<\/strong>&nbsp;to join its bid to build an integrated resort in Yokohama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sega Sammy had hailed\u00a0<strong>Genting Singapore as the best possible partner for an integrated resort\u00a0<\/strong>due to its successful Resorts World Sentosa operation in Singapore.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lawrence Ho Yau Lung, chairman and chief executive of casino operator Melco Resorts and Entertainment Ltd, has said the company will seek other opportunities to develop an integrated resort in Japan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":17574,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Melco Resorts & Entertainment has formally withdrawn from the Yokohama integrated resort bid following the newly elected mayor's decision to cancel the city's IR development plans. Despite this setback, Melco's CEO, Lawrence Ho, affirmed the company's long-term commitment to exploring other IR opportunities in Japan, maintaining a Tokyo office. Concurrently, Sega Sammy Holdings Inc. also suspended its Yokohama IR plans, which previously involved a partnership with Genting Singapore.","focusai_entities":"Melco Resorts and Entertainment Ltd, Lawrence Ho Yau Lung, Takeharu Yamanaka, Sega Sammy Holdings Inc, Genting Singapore","focusai_location":"Japan, Yokohama, Tokyo, Singapore","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.95), regulator (0.75), compliance_legal (0.7), operator_casino (0.9), investor_analyst (0.95), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Melco's Japan Strategy","query":"What specific criteria will Melco Resorts & Entertainment prioritize when evaluating alternative integrated resort development opportunities in Japan, given the political sensitivities observed in Yokohama?"},{"label":"Japan IR Market Outlook","query":"How might the public sentiment against IR development in Tokyo, as indicated by recent surveys, influence the national government's approach to future integrated resort licensing and the potential for a second IR location?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,16338,158],"tags":[23632,23970,1842],"class_list":["post-22551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-casino-news","category-east-asia-news","category-slider-home","tag-integrated-resorts","tag-melco-resorts-entertainment","tag-sega-sammy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22551","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=22551"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22559,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22551\/revisions\/22559"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}