{"id":30240,"date":"2022-05-30T01:55:04","date_gmt":"2022-05-30T04:55:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=30240"},"modified":"2026-04-23T08:19:38","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T11:19:38","slug":"osaka-citizens-push-for-ir-referendum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/osaka-citizens-push-for-ir-referendum","title":{"rendered":"Osaka citizens push for IR referendum"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A group has gathered the necessary number of signatures to request a referendum, but Osaka authorities are likely to reject it again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Japan.- Although\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/osaka-city-council-gives-go-ahead-for-ir-bid\" target=\"_blank\">plans to develop an IR in Osaka<\/a>\u00a0have already been approved and submitted to national authorities, residents continue to push for a referendum on the matter. A group has gathered 157,716 signatures calling for a referendum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, casino executive Daniel Cheng told Asian Gaming Brief,\u00a0a referendum is unlikely to be granted, even if the governor risks not being re-elected in 2023. A previous <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/osaka-votes-against-allowing-ir-referendum\" target=\"_blank\">request for a referendum<\/a> made\u00a0by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), was rejected by 58 out of 83 votes on Osaka&#8217;s council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, in Yokohama, an anti-IR candidate <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/yokohama-ir-plans-to-be-cancelled-from-october-1\" target=\"_blank\">buried plans to develop an IR there<\/a> after ousting the previous governor who had refused to hold a referendum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Osaka&#8217;s operator partner, the\u00a0<strong>MGM-Orix<\/strong>\u00a0consortium, has proposed to invest\u00a0<strong>JPY1tn (US$9.1bn)<\/strong>\u00a0in 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<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Besides Osaka,\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/japan-only-2-locations-submit-ir-proposals\" target=\"_blank\">Nagasaki is the only other city<\/a>\u00a0to have submitted IR District Development Plans approved by local authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The method established by the national government in December 2020 states that the IR applications will be judged based on a points scale of up to 1,000 under five key criteria:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The commitment of the IR to the Japanese travel industry (up to 450 points).<\/li><li>The capacity to run a safe business (200 points).<\/li><li>The national economic and social effects (150 points).<\/li><li>Programmes to address gambling-related harm (150 points).<\/li><li>The use of casino revenue for the public good (50 points).<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A group has gathered the necessary number of signatures to request a referendum, but Osaka authorities are likely to reject it again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Despite national approval for an Integrated Resort (IR) in Osaka, a local group has gathered signatures for a referendum, which authorities are expected to reject. This political friction, reminiscent of Yokohama's IR cancellation, poses a significant governance challenge for the JPY1tn (US$9.1bn) MGM-Orix consortium project, targeting a 2029 opening. The situation underscores the complexities of local public sentiment impacting large-scale capital market investments and regulatory compliance within Japan's nascent IR framework.","focusai_entities":"Osaka authorities, Daniel Cheng, Asian Gaming Brief, Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), MGM-Orix consortium, MGM, Orix","focusai_location":"Japan, Osaka, Yokohama, Nagasaki, Dream Island","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (0.9), compliance_legal (0.8), operator_casino (1.0), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Osaka IR Referendum Impact","query":"What are the specific legal and political mechanisms available to Osaka authorities to definitively reject a referendum request, and what precedent does the Yokohama case set for future IR developments in Japan?"},{"label":"MGM-Orix Risk Assessment","query":"How might the ongoing public opposition and political uncertainty in Osaka impact the MGM-Orix consortium's capital deployment strategy, project financing, and overall risk-adjusted return projections for the JPY1tn IR?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[157,16338,158],"tags":[23632],"class_list":["post-30240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","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\/30240","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=30240"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30281,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30240\/revisions\/30281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}