{"id":31742,"date":"2022-07-14T03:03:18","date_gmt":"2022-07-14T06:03:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=31742"},"modified":"2026-04-23T06:53:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T09:53:34","slug":"osaka-anti-ir-group-to-submit-a-referendum-request-on-july-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/osaka-anti-ir-group-to-submit-a-referendum-request-on-july-21","title":{"rendered":"Osaka: anti-IR group to submit referendum request on July 21"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Osaka prefecture\u2019s governor Hirofumi Yoshimura has previously said that a referendum is unnecessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Japan.- An anti-IR group has said that it will <strong>submit a referendum request to Osaka prefecture\u2019s governor<\/strong>, Hirofumi Yoshimura, on July 21. According to GGRAsia, the group has gathered 208,552 signatures, crossing the threshold of <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/osaka-citizens-continue-to-push-for-ir-referendum\" target=\"_blank\">2 per cent of voters<\/a>\u00a0necessary to demand a vote. This means that this time it could be difficult for the prefecture to reject the demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong>Osaka prefecture\u2019s governor<\/strong>, who is in favour of the development of an integrated resort, has previously said that a referendum is unnecessary. Meanwhile, a lawyer has announced he <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/lawsuit-could-jeopardise-osaka-ir-plans\" target=\"_blank\">plans to file a lawsuit<\/a>\u00a0after the city of Osaka&#8217;s Audit Committee reportedly refused to review land lease agreements for the development of the IR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>People opposed to the casino plans claim the arrangement violated\u00a0<strong>Japan\u2019s Local Government Finance Act<\/strong>, which aims to curb excessive public spending. <strong>MGM Resorts International\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0<strong>ORIX (MGM-Orix)\u00a0<\/strong>were selected as Osaka\u2019s\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/osaka-announces-mgm-orix-as-ir-partner\" target=\"_blank\">IR partners<\/a>\u00a0by the Osaka Prefecture. The consortium proposed to invest\u00a0<strong>JPY1tn (US$9.1bn)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Osaka prefecture\u2019s governor Hirofumi Yoshimura has previously said that a referendum is unnecessary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":11052,"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-IR group in Osaka, Japan, has successfully gathered sufficient signatures to demand a referendum on the proposed integrated resort, challenging Governor Yoshimura's stance. Concurrently, a lawsuit is being prepared over the IR's land lease agreements, alleging violations of the Local Government Finance Act. This introduces significant regulatory and political uncertainty for the MGM-Orix consortium's JPY1tn development.","focusai_entities":"Hirofumi Yoshimura, GGRAsia, MGM Resorts International, ORIX, Osaka City Audit Committee","focusai_location":"Japan, Osaka","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (0.95), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.9), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.85)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"IR Project Viability","query":"What specific governance frameworks or legal precedents could the Osaka prefecture invoke to potentially circumvent or delay the proposed referendum on the integrated resort?"},{"label":"Financial Impact Analysis","query":"How might the ongoing legal challenge regarding land lease agreements and the potential referendum impact the JPY1tn capital expenditure and projected ROI for the MGM-Orix consortium?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16338,154],"tags":[23632,23907],"class_list":["post-31742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-asia-news","category-legislation-news","tag-integrated-resorts","tag-land-based-casino"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31742","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=31742"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31779,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31742\/revisions\/31779"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}