Inside Asian Gaming

IAG FEB 2021年2月 亞博匯 58 JAPAN in 2017 in Incheon, close to the international airport servicing Seoul. Sega Sammy has made it known that it is pursuing Yokohama as an IR location, releasing a concept and artist’s impression for a Yokohama IR in February 2020 when it also announced a number of partnerships relating to its IR bid, including with UK architecture and design firm Foster + Partners. Sega Sammy’s Chairman Hajime Satomi ranked number 44 on the Asian Gaming Power 50 in 2020. His son Haruki Satomi is President and Group CEO. The name Okada is well known to IAG readers – both the man himself Kazuo Okada and the IR he founded in the Philippines, Okada Manila. Okada has been in the industry for decades through slot machine manufacturing company Aruze, Okada Manila parent Universal Entertainment Corporation, and his one- time position as Wynn Resorts largest shareholder and Vice Chairman. Embroiled in bitter litigation for much of the past decade, we haven’t heard any serious talk of Okada making a bid in Japan, although it could be argued he has more IR experience than any other Japanese businessman. LAS VEGAS OPERATORS Japan has a complicated relationship with the United States, which stretches back to the post WWII period. Certainly the US has had a major influence on Japan, and even today there are 23 US military bases in Japan, with some 50,000 personnel. This number swells to 100,000 Americans if you count dependents and contractors. Baseball is widely considered to be the most popular sport in Japan (noting that sumo One of the biggest issues with the Japan process is that Japanese authorities have not made any regulatory distinction between metropolitan and regional IRs. 日本相關程序的最大問題之一是，日本當 局沒有在大都會IR 項目和地方IR項目之間 進行任何監管區分。