{"id":777002245,"date":"2023-02-09T08:33:46","date_gmt":"2023-02-09T11:33:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777002245"},"modified":"2026-04-23T00:48:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T03:48:49","slug":"mgm-ceo-osaka-ir-may-not-open-this-decade-if-approval-doesnt-come-soon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/mgm-ceo-osaka-ir-may-not-open-this-decade-if-approval-doesnt-come-soon","title":{"rendered":"MGM CEO: Osaka IR may not open this decade if approval doesn&#8217;t come soon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Bill Hornbuckle, MGM president and CEO, is cautious about reaching the planned opening in 2029.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Japan.- Osaka and Nagasaki were hoping to have their integrated resort plans approved by now. However, Japan&#8217;s central government has yet to make a decision on the matter. As a result, the companies involved in what were the only two bids for a possible three licences are starting to think that they won&#8217;t make the planned opening dates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During a presidential of annual results, MGM president and CEO <strong>Bill Hornbuckle<\/strong> expressed frustration at the government&#8217;s lack of response to a proposal submitted&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/japan-only-2-locations-submit-ir-proposals\" target=\"_blank\">around 10 months ago<\/a>.&nbsp;Hornbuckle said he hoped there would be news soon but that if not the objective of a 2029 opening would be missed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The process is currently being overseen by the Ministry of Land, Transport and Infrastructure, which has been consistently asking questions about the project.&nbsp;MGM Resorts and its local partners, including Orix Corp, have been selected as the preferred private-sector providers for a JPY1.08tn (US$8.25bn) casino resort in Osaka&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/osaka-announces-mgm-orix-as-ir-partner\" target=\"_blank\">in September 2021<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The project includes&nbsp;<strong>three hotels<\/strong>&nbsp;providing approximately 2,500 rooms, a MICE facility measuring 68,000 square meters, a 3,500-seat theatre and various Japanese cultural experiences and retail facilities. It would employ about 15,000 people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bill Hornbuckle, MGM president and CEO, is cautious about reaching the planned opening in 2029.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":20877,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"MGM Resorts' CEO, Bill Hornbuckle, expresses significant concern regarding the protracted integrated resort (IR) licensing process in Japan, specifically for the Osaka project. Central government indecision has led to doubts about meeting the targeted 2029 opening, impacting a JPY1.08tn investment and potential job creation. The Ministry of Land, Transport and Infrastructure continues to oversee the stalled approval process.","focusai_entities":"Bill Hornbuckle, MGM, MGM Resorts, Orix Corp, Ministry of Land, Transport and Infrastructure","focusai_location":"Japan, Osaka, Nagasaki","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.95), regulator (0.9), compliance_legal (0.7), operator_casino (0.95), investor_analyst (0.95), supplier_vendor (0.85), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Regulatory Hurdles Impact?","query":"What specific regulatory hurdles are causing the protracted decision-making process by the Ministry of Land, Transport and Infrastructure, and what are the potential implications for the final governance frameworks?"},{"label":"Financial Projections Revisions?","query":"How will these delays impact the projected GGR and NGR for the Osaka IR, and what are the revised financial models being considered by MGM Resorts and Orix Corp for capital expenditure and ROI?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[157,16338],"tags":[23632,24020],"class_list":["post-777002245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-news","category-east-asia-news","tag-integrated-resorts","tag-mgm-orix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777002245","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=777002245"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777002245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777002281,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777002245\/revisions\/777002281"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777002245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777002245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777002245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}