{"id":28530,"date":"2022-03-30T06:43:41","date_gmt":"2022-03-30T09:43:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=28530"},"modified":"2026-04-23T10:05:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T13:05:06","slug":"wakayama-city-council-gives-first-ok-to-ir-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wakayama-city-council-gives-first-ok-to-ir-bid","title":{"rendered":"Wakayama City Council gives first OK to IR bid"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Wakayama City Council has given its approval to plans to apply to host an integrated resort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Japan.- The Wakayama City Council has voted to give its approve for an application to be submitted to national government for an integrated casino resort. The Wakayama prefectural council must also approve the urban plan before it can be submitted. So far, a <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/prefectural-committee-gives-its-approval-to-wakayama-ir-plans\" target=\"_blank\">prefectural special committee<\/a> has approved the plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The prefecture\u2019s chosen private sector partner,&nbsp;<strong>Clairvest Neem Ventures,&nbsp;<\/strong>will raise JPY470bn (US$4.09bn) to invest in the integrated resort, which the prefectural government hopes will be&nbsp;<strong>open by 2026<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>April 28 is the last date for local governments to submit proposals for casino resort rights to the central government.\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/japan-opens-application-period-for-ir-submissions-until-april-2022\" target=\"_blank\">Up to three IRs may be allowed across the country<\/a>\u00a0under the existing liberalisation plan. Nagasaki and Osaka are also currently likely to submit corresponding casino resort applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yesterday, the\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/osaka-prefectural-assembly-approves-ir-plans\" target=\"_blank\">Osaka prefectural council<\/a>\u00a0voted in favour of its IR district development plan. At the final plenary meeting of the current session of the council, Osaka Restoration and Komeito members, which together have 58 out of 83 seats, voted in favour of the IR Regional Development Plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The prefecture\u2019s operator partner, the&nbsp;<strong>MGM-Orix<\/strong>&nbsp;consortium has proposed to invest&nbsp;<strong>JPY1tn (US$9.1bn)<\/strong>&nbsp;in the planned IR. The proposed site is an artificial island: Dream Island, in Osaka Bay. The project has a target date of opening in 2029.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Japan\u2019s prime minister reaffirms position in favour of IRs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Prime minister&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/japans-next-prime-minister-in-favour-of-ir-developments\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Fumio Kishida<\/a>&nbsp;has reiterated his belief that opening up a casino industry in Japan could&nbsp;<strong>boost inbound tourism&nbsp;<\/strong>as the country finally looks to attract foreign tourists following the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, Tetsuo Saito, Japan\u2019s minister of land, infrastructure, transport and tourism has said the government will set up a panel of experts to review plans submitted by prefectures that want to host IRs. The panel will include<strong>&nbsp;consideration of economic benefit calculations<\/strong>, prospects for the financial stability of such schemes, and certainty of funding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Wakayama City Council has given its approval to plans to apply to host an integrated resort.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":26757,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Wakayama City Council has approved plans for an integrated resort application, with Clairvest Neem Ventures committing JPY470bn. Concurrently, Osaka's prefectural council approved its IR development plan, backed by the MGM-Orix consortium's JPY1tn investment for a 2029 opening. These developments align with Prime Minister Kishida's support for IRs to boost tourism, as a government expert panel prepares to review proposals.","focusai_entities":"Wakayama City Council, Clairvest Neem Ventures, Osaka prefectural council, Osaka Restoration, Komeito, MGM-Orix consortium, Fumio Kishida, Tetsuo Saito, MGM, Orix","focusai_location":"Japan, Wakayama, Osaka, Dream Island","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (1.0), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.8), operator_casino (1.0), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.9), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"IR Funding Certainty?","query":"Given the substantial capital commitments, what specific financial instruments and guarantees are being proposed by Clairvest Neem Ventures and the MGM-Orix consortium to ensure funding certainty, particularly in light of the expert panel's review criteria?"},{"label":"Regulatory Hurdles?","query":"Beyond the prefectural approvals, what are the most significant regulatory and political hurdles remaining for Wakayama and Osaka to secure one of the three national IR licenses, and how might the expert panel's assessment influence the final selection?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[157,16338,158],"tags":[23632],"class_list":["post-28530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-news","category-east-asia-news","category-slider-home","tag-integrated-resorts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28530","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=28530"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28542,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28530\/revisions\/28542"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}