{"id":777033583,"date":"2025-10-24T08:21:32","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T11:21:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777033583"},"modified":"2026-04-21T17:52:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T20:52:12","slug":"japans-new-pm-reportedly-orders-tourism-ministry-to-promote-integrated-resort-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/japans-new-pm-reportedly-orders-tourism-ministry-to-promote-integrated-resort-development","title":{"rendered":"Japan\u2019s new PM reportedly orders tourism ministry to promote integrated resort development"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The tourism ministry is expected to reopen applications for intergrated resorts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Japan.- Newly appointed Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi<\/strong> has reportedly instructed her incoming minister of land, infrastructure, transport and tourism to promote the devcelopment of integrated resorts (IRs). According to Japanese media, Takaichi’s nine key goals for Yasushi Kaneko<\/strong> include the promotion of IRs as part of an effort to strengthen the country\u2019s tourism appeal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaneko’s ministry oversees the Japan Tourism Agency (JTA), which responsible for casino resort licensing. There was already expectation that Japan would hold another round of bidding of IR licences after only one out of a possible three licences the first time around. That went to MGM Osaka<\/a>, which is due to open in 2030. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Takaichi\u2019s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has formed a coalition with the pro-business Japan Innovation Party (Ishin no Kai), replacing the LDP\u2019s previous alliance with the Buddhist-influenced Komeito. Ishin no Kai is led by Osaka governor Hirofumi Yoshimura and is in favour of more IRs in Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sanae Takaichi. Photo: CC BY 4.0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Reports suggest the national government is preparing to survey all 47 prefectures and 20 ordinance-designated cities to gauge interest in hosting a casino resort<\/strong>. Should enough local authorities express interest, a new round of applications could open as early as 2026, following a period of public consultation and cabinet review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the potential candidates, Hokkaido has re-emerged as a possible contender<\/a> after withdrawing from the initial round in 2019. Governor Naomichi Suzuki confirmed that the prefecture plans to present a revised IR proposal to its assembly in November 2025, addressing key concerns such as responsible gambling, environmental sustainability, and economic viability.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\t\t\tSee also:<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tSee also:<\/span> Eyes now on MGM Osaka following 2025 World Expo<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The tourism ministry is expected to reopen applications for intergrated resorts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":680,"featured_media":777033590,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Japan's new Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, is actively promoting the development of Integrated Resorts (IRs) to bolster tourism, with her administration expected to reopen the application process. This initiative follows a political shift, with the pro-business Japan Innovation Party now in coalition, and comes as only one of three initial licenses was awarded to MGM Osaka. The national government plans to survey prefectures and cities, with Hokkaido re-emerging as a potential contender, signaling a renewed push for IR expansion.","focusai_entities":"Sanae Takaichi, Yasushi Kaneko, Japan Tourism Agency (JTA), MGM Osaka, Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Japan Innovation Party (Ishin no Kai), Komeito, Hirofumi Yoshimura, Naomichi Suzuki","focusai_location":"Japan, Osaka, Hokkaido","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (1.0), regulator (0.9), compliance_legal (0.8), operator_casino (1.0), payments_fraud_aml (0.7), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.9), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"IR Licensing Timeline?","query":"What is the projected timeline for the new IR licensing application process, including public consultation and cabinet review phases, and how might this impact the 2026 target?"},{"label":"Hokkaido's IR Proposal?","query":"What specific revisions and commitments regarding responsible gambling, environmental sustainability, and economic viability is Hokkaido expected to include in its November 2025 IR proposal to address prior concerns?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,16338],"tags":[12436,23632,470],"class_list":["post-777033583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-casino-news","category-east-asia-news","tag-casinos","tag-integrated-resorts","tag-japan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777033583","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\/680"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777033583"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777033583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777033607,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777033583\/revisions\/777033607"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777033590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777033583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777033583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777033583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}