The resident group “Yokohama Citizens’ Group to Decide on a Casino” has collected more than double the number of signatures needed for a referendum on a Yokohama city IR, throwing into doubt the city’s IR development plans.
Needing a total of 62,500 signatures to call a referendum on the matter, the group has so far collected 156,000 with the next step being to confirm if at least 62,500 of those signatures are valid.
If confirmed, Mayor Fumiko Hayashi will submit a referendum ordinance proposal to the city council. The referendum requires the ordinance proposal to be passed before proceeding.
It is unclear whether the ordinance will be adopted because the city council is Liberal Democratic Party, which is in favor of an IR bid. Mayor Hayashi has indicated that she will stop the project if the referendum demonstrates a majority of residents are in opposition.
Another political group titled “Recall Movement Starting from One Person,” which opposes the IR bid but also aims to recall Mayor Hayashi’s election, announced that it had collect 41,122 signatures as of 4 November. It has approximately one month to collect more signatures, however the current total is less than one-tenth of the roughly 500,000 signatures required number to dismiss the mayor.
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