{"id":24883,"date":"2021-11-25T12:41:34","date_gmt":"2021-11-25T15:41:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=24883"},"modified":"2026-04-23T13:29:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T16:29:25","slug":"wakayama-anti-ir-group-to-demand-referendum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wakayama-anti-ir-group-to-demand-referendum","title":{"rendered":"Wakayama: anti-IR group to demand referendum"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>An anti-IR group claims it has collected enough signatures to demand a referendum on the development of an integrated resort in Wakayama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Japan.- Campaigners in Wakayama says that have collected more than 8,000 signatures to a petition calling for a referendum of the city integrated resort plans. That&#8217;s more than the<strong> 2 per cent of voters<\/strong> required to submit a referendum motion request.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The anti-IR group began <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wakayama-citizens-call-for-an-ir-referendum\">collecting signatures<\/a> and hopes to force a referendum that would allow voters to choose whether or not to support proposals for an integrated resort in Wakayama. It hopes\u00a0<strong>to reach 20,000 signatures\u00a0<\/strong>by December 5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The group&#8217;s main objection to IR is the uncertainty around the nature of <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/clairvest-confirmed-as-ir-partner-in-wakayama\">Clairvest Neem Ventures\u2019 consortium<\/a>, the selected partner for the\u00a0<strong>planned integrated resort<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Wakayama Prefectural Government hopes to\u00a0<strong>open an integrated resort by 2026<\/strong>. It must submit its area development plan to the national government for approval by April 28, 2022. However, the <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wakayama-postpones-ir-public-hearings-due-to-lack-of-information\">first of 14 public hearing sessions<\/a>, which had been scheduled for November 25, has been postponed until\u00a0<strong>February <\/strong>as information on funding and the structure of the winning consortium is still pending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Clairvest Neem Ventures Co Ltd is Wakayama\u2019s IR partner, and it has an agreement with\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wakayama-clairvest-partners-with-caesars-entertainment\">Caesars Entertainment<\/a>.\u00a0However, prefecture and Clairvest have been unable to provide specific details about financing and the individuals involved in the operation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An anti-IR group claims it has collected enough signatures to demand a referendum on the development of an integrated resort in Wakayama.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":24800,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"An anti-Integrated Resort (IR) group in Wakayama, Japan, has collected enough signatures to demand a referendum on the proposed IR development, citing significant concerns over the transparency of Clairvest Neem Ventures' consortium and its financing. This public opposition and the ongoing lack of clarity have already led to the postponement of public hearings, potentially jeopardizing the prefecture's 2026 opening target and the national government approval timeline.","focusai_entities":"Clairvest Neem Ventures, Caesars Entertainment, Wakayama Prefectural Government","focusai_location":"Wakayama, Japan","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (0.95), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.85), investor_analyst (0.95), supplier_vendor (0.75), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"IR Funding Transparency","query":"How will the ongoing lack of transparency regarding Clairvest Neem Ventures' consortium structure and financing impact the Wakayama Prefectural Government's ability to secure national government approval for its IR development plan by the April 2022 deadline?"},{"label":"Referendum Precedent Impact","query":"What precedent could a successful referendum in Wakayama set for other proposed integrated resort developments in Japan, particularly concerning public sentiment and local governance challenges?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16338,156,158],"tags":[14017],"class_list":["post-24883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-asia-news","category-regulation-news","category-slider-home","tag-integrated-resort"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24883","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=24883"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24901,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24883\/revisions\/24901"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}