Inside Asian Gaming

IAG APR 2021年4月 亞博匯 53 日本 I n order for a local government to be approved by Japan’s national government as a candidate location for IR development, it must first meet various conditions set forth in the IR Development Act. One of those conditions that Yokohama continues to struggle with is securing an IR location. The planned candidate location, at least according to the city, is Yamashita Wharf. The Yamashita Wharf reclamation project started in 1953 and was completed for international trade in 1963. It has played an important role as the main wharf for Yokohama Port, supporting the area’s high growth period from 1955 to 1965. The historical area is home to many storage sheds and warehouses. In recent years, other wharves with physical distribution functions, such as Honmoku Wharf, have sprouted up to complement the main wharf. Yamashita Wharf itself currently houses 24 warehouses and many companies operate here. The city is in negotiations with those companies to leave the wharf although technically an IR is not the reason behind this request. In 2014, a Port and Harbor plan was issued with the goal of converting Yamashita Wharf and its high percentage of deteriorating facilities from distribution to urban land use. At that time, the national system for an IR wasn’t even in place yet. Furthermore, until now Yokohama Port’s main activities were exports, but that is also shifting to imports, so the city plans to expand warehouse storage space. In other words, sooner or later, Yamashita Wharf’s redevelopment will commence, whether there is an IR bid or not. A spokesperson from the Yokohama Ports and Harbours Bureau told IAG , “Of the 24 occupants that have been requested to leave, 12 have entered into agreements to do so.” Some of those are gone already. The names of those who haven’t agreed hasn’t been disclosed, but the common belief is they are companies that are anti-IR, specifically anti-casino, and those that belong to organizations actively opposing casino development. 日 本各地的地方政府如果想得到該國中央政府的 首肯，把當地列為發展綜合度假村(IR)的候選 地點的話，就必須先符合在《綜合度假村發展 法》之中所載的多項條件。而其中橫濱一直無法 滿足的一項，就是定出一個發展IR的確實位置。 橫濱的預定候選地點就是山下碼頭。至少該市的說法正是 如此。該碼頭的相關填海計劃於1953年開始，並在1963年完成， 用以應付國際貿易。作為橫濱港的主要碼頭，山下碼頭一直扮 演著一個重要的角色，支持著該區在1955至1965年間的高速增 長。無數的店舖小屋和倉庫都棲身於那個充滿歷史的區域之中。 到了近年，包括本牧碼頭在內其他擁有實際貨運功能的碼頭應 運而生，並且分擔了主要碼頭的工作。 山下碼頭現時有24個倉庫及大量公司在那裏經營著。橫濱 市正與那些公司商討，希望它們遷離碼頭，雖然理論上IR並非該 市要求企業離開碼頭的原因。在2014年，一個碼頭及港口計劃被 公佈，希望把山下碼頭及其大量日漸老舊的設施從貨運改成都 市用地。那時，關於IR的國家級計劃仍未出現。 另外，直至目前為止，橫濱港都是以出口活動為主，但亦已 逐漸轉變成進口，因此該市計劃擴充倉庫的儲存空間。亦即是 說，山下碼頭的重新發展無論有沒有IR競逐這件事都遲早會開 始。 一名橫濱港口及碼頭局(Ports and Harbours Bureau)的發 言人向《亞博匯》表示：「在24個被要求離開的佔用機構中，12個 已經就此事達成協議。」 它們有一些其實已經離開該碼頭，但那些未有達成協議者的 身份就沒有被公佈，可是一般相信它們都是反對IR、特別是反對