{"id":777023404,"date":"2025-02-26T09:39:57","date_gmt":"2025-02-26T12:39:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777023404"},"modified":"2026-04-22T01:25:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T04:25:28","slug":"tomakomais-new-mayor-revives-plans-for-casino-in-hokkaido","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/tomakomais-new-mayor-revives-plans-for-casino-in-hokkaido","title":{"rendered":"Tomakomai&#8217;s new mayor revives plans for casino in Hokkaido"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Suguru Kanazawa said the city is restructuring its plans to host an integrated resort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Japan.- <strong>Suguru Kanazawa<\/strong>, the newly elected mayor of Tomakomai in Hokkaido prefecture, has announced plans to revive the city\u2019s bid to host an integrated resort (IR) with a casino. He made the comments during a policy address at the start of the Tomakomai City Council\u2019s regular session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kanazawa said the city was restructuring its IR promotion initiatives and working with the central government and Hokkaido Prefecture to attract private investment to the area around New Chitose Airport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In November 2019, Hokkaido chose not to participate in Japan\u2019s initial IR application phase, mainly due to environmental concerns. However, authorities in Tomakomai remained interested in the possibility of hosting a resort. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The only IR project approved in Japan for now is MGM Osaka on Yumeshima island. The development of the IR is\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/osaka-announces-mgm-orix-as-ir-partner\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a joint venture<\/a>\u00a0between\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/toyonori-takahashi-orix-we-believe-the-ir-will-attract-many-visitors-and-tourists-to-osaka\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the Orix Group<\/a>, MGM Resorts International and several smaller-scale Japanese investors.\u00a0Construction for Phase I of the complex is set to begin at the end of April and an opening is expected in autumn 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/osaka-ir-project-secures-us3-4bn-loan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The IR is expected to cost JPY1.27tn (US$ 8.9bn)<\/a>\u00a0and is anticipated to generate annual revenue of JPY520bn, of which about 80 per cent is expected to come from the casino. It will also include hotels, shopping areas, convention areas and facilities.\u00a0Plans for Phase II are being discussed, with possible additions such as a motor racing track, arena, hotel, and entertainment options. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Suguru Kanazawa said the city is restructuring its plans to host an integrated resort.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":26597,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Tomakomai, Hokkaido, led by newly elected Mayor Suguru Kanazawa, is reviving its bid to host an Integrated Resort (IR) with a casino, restructuring its promotion initiatives and seeking private investment. This move follows Hokkaido's previous withdrawal due to environmental concerns and comes as MGM Osaka, a joint venture with Orix Group, proceeds with its JPY1.27tn IR project, expected to open in 2030.","focusai_entities":"Suguru Kanazawa, Tomakomai City Council, Hokkaido Prefecture, Orix Group, MGM Resorts International","focusai_location":"Tomakomai, Hokkaido, Japan, New Chitose Airport, Osaka, Yumeshima island","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.95), regulator (0.9), compliance_legal (0.85), operator_casino (0.95), investor_analyst (0.95), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Tomakomai IR Feasibility?","query":"What specific regulatory and environmental hurdles must Tomakomai overcome to secure central government approval for its IR bid, given Hokkaido's prior withdrawal due to environmental concerns?"},{"label":"Investment Impact?","query":"How might a successful Tomakomai IR bid impact the projected market share and financial performance of the MGM Osaka IR, and what new investment opportunities would emerge for B2B suppliers?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,16338,24628,158],"tags":[23632,23907],"class_list":["post-777023404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-casino-news","category-east-asia-news","category-highlight-of-the-week","category-slider-home","tag-integrated-resorts","tag-land-based-casino"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777023404","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=777023404"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777023404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777023421,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777023404\/revisions\/777023421"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777023404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777023404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777023404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}