On June 9, Osaka City Council members voted on a resolution to proceed with the prefecture’s policy on integrated resort (IR) development.
According to GGRAsia, Osaka Innovation, the leading political faction on council, suggested a vote to clarify which members of council support the policy and which continue to oppose it.
Osaka Innovation, the Komeito Party and members of the local Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) voted in favor of the development, a $10 billion complex from MGM Resorts International to be developed on Yumeshima Island in Osaka Bay. A segment of the local LDP and the local unit of the Japanese Communist Party voted against it.
At the national level, LDP-led coalition governments have come out in support of casino liberalization, a project of late prime minister Shinzo Abe. Osaka’s IR District Development Plan was OK’d in April by central government authorities.
MGM and its Japanese partner, Orix Corp, expect the IR to open in 2029 or 2030.
