Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING JUNE 2018 36 With opinions still divided as to when Japan’s first IRs will open, IAG takes a closer look at the steps still needed to get there and how long each might take. FEATURES JAPAN IR TIMELINE By Ben Blaschke W HAT year for Japan’s first IR? It’s a question that continues to divide industry stakeholders, the answer further clouded by the substantial disparity in opinion offered at last month’s Japan Gaming Congress (JgC) in Tokyo. At the nearer end of the scale, members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party remain hopeful of the nation’s first integrated resort opening its doors as early as 2022 or 2023 – a dream that has been boosted in the weeks since JgC by news that the current Diet session will likely be extended into early July to ensure passage of the long-awaited IR Implementation Bill. Speaking in Tokyo in May, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary of the LDP, Yasutoshi Nishimura, said, “As the Central Government, we recognize the IR bill has now been submitted, so we have just requested the Diet to debate about the bill. All party groups have a representative to discuss the IR situation, so we hope the debate can proceed smoothly. “After the bill is passed we would like to build the government’s policy and based on this policy or regulation any prefecture, candidate city and IR operator can start to apply and then if everything proceeds smoothly I am hoping to have an IR here in Japan in the early 2020s.” But not all expect the process to run so smoothly. Inside Asian Gaming spoke to a number of Japanese politicians involved in the IR process during JgC, with one of them, independent MP Mito Kakizawa, suggesting that casino gaming won’t become a reality in Japan until at least 2029 or 2030. Kakizawa, a member of the House of Representatives and former member of The Party of Hope, said the process of establishing Japan’s