Inside Asian Gaming

IAG JAN 2021年1月 亞博匯 28 COVER STORY successor Yoshihide Suga spoke in the Japanese Diet’s House of Representatives on 28 October, confirming his belief that IRs are an important initiative for Japan in becoming a developed tourist destination and reiterating his intention to continue the pro-IR policy of his predecessor. This is unsurprising given that Japan’s new PM was Abe’s right-hand man for many years – even seen by some as a “shadow Prime Minister” during the Abe years. WHAT? So, what changed in 2020? In short – a lot. As with just about every other industry across the planet in 2020, the Japanese IR landscape was dominated by the global coronavirus pandemic. The pandemic caused a rush “back to base” for many expatriate executives from global IR companies who had been working in Japan. Worse, it effectively made travel to and from Japan all but impossible, meaning representatives of the world’s IR companies couldn’t meet with key stakeholders such as politicians, bureaucrats, contractors, potential consortium partners, investment banks and the like. As many have found in the new pandemic normal, online videoconferencing software like Zoom and Microsoft Teams offer something of a substitute – but nothing beats face to face meetings, particularly in Japan where building personal relationships is such an important part of doing business. And especially when that business is on a scale of billions of dollars. Another key factor to hit IRs in Japan in 2020 was the saga of Chinese online sports lottery Osaka is still considered the most likely candidate to open Japan’s first integrated resort. 大阪仍被認為是最有可能開業日本首個綜合度假村的候選地區。