Yukio Fujiki, the 89-year-old head of the Yokohama Harbor Transport Association, has announced he is retiring from that role, but only to take up arms against the city’s IR bid.
“I will be 90 years old in August,” Fujiki said at a recent meeting. “I would like to withdraw and make room for a new system.”
Fujiki who will also step down as president of Fujiki Transportation and Stevedoring Co., but will stay on as a consultant, reported GGRAsia. His son, Kota Fujiki, current vice chairman of the family business, will assume the role of president.
According to the Kanagawa Shimbun, Fujiki is looking for a redevelopment concept for the region that does not include a casino resort.
Fujiki found the Yokohama Harbour Resort Association in May 2019 in opposition to a casino facility in a Yokohama IR. He has said, “It will only feed money into overseas businesses. There is also a serious problem with addiction.
“It can’t happen no matter how much money it brings in,” he said. “Even if the city tries to evict me [from the candidate IR site of Yamashita Pier], I will not go.”
Fujiki is also president of the Yokohama FM Broadcasting and chairman of the prefecture’s baseball council, and he has many connections in the political and business worlds, earning him the nickname “The Don of ‘Hama,’” GGRA reported.
