Yokohama: anti-IR campaigner launch new organisation

Yokohama Harbor Resort Association chairman Yukio Fujiki has launched a new organisation called “Yokohama Future Concept Conference”.

Japan.- Opponents to Yokohama’s plans to bid to host an integrated resort have formed a new organisation.

 90-year-old Yukio Fujiki, chairman of the Yokohama Port Harbor Resort Association and a strong opponent against the development of an IR has launched an organisation called “Yokohama Future Concept Conference”.

At an inaugural conference, Fujiki criticised Japan’s pro-IR Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, saying he had betrayed people through the IR initiative.

At the next event, Fujiki hopes to select an anti-IR candidate to run for the Yokohama mayoral elections.

Another anti-IR group, the Kanagawa Citizens Ombudsman, wants to launch a lawsuit to stop a potential IR development. It says that the proposed Yamashita Wharf location should not be leased to an IR operator.

It argues that the IR development would harm public welfare and wants an audit of the location.

The biggest opposition party, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ), has not yet reached an agreement on a unified anti-IR candidate.

Japan’s second-largest opposition party, the Japan Communist Party, has offered to withdraw its candidate to give more chances to a single anti-IR candidate, but the CDPJ appears to be unsure about the strategy.

There are currently two independent anti-IR candidates who have launched their respective campaigns.

Masataka Ota is a member of the Constitutional Democratic Party who has expressed his stance against Yokohama participating in a bid for an integrated resort licence.

Then there’s Akiko Fujimura, the representative director of an animal welfare group, who has stated that if she wins the election, she will order the immediate cancellation of the city’s IR project.

As for pro-IR Yokohama mayor Fumiko Hayashi, she has not clarified whether she will run for a fourth term.