Yoshihide Suga, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary under outgoing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and recently elected president of the country’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) by a substantial margin, was named prime minister of the country last week.
GGRAsia reports that Suga won 377 votes in the LDP poll, far outstripping rivals Fumio Kishida and Shigeru Ishiba, who got 89 votes and 68 votes respectively. Like Abe, who resigned for health reasons, Suga supports the development of integrated resorts (IRs) with gaming in the country.
In a September 4 interview, Suga said IRs are a vital part to the country’s plan to grown international tourism, and called them “indispensable for our tourism promotion efforts. Speaking to TV Kanagawa, he said, “Although people tend to focus only on the casinos, the government intends to promote IRs as places with various facilities and hotels where families can come and stay during international conferences.”
According to Inside Asian Gaming, Masayoshi Matsumoto, chairman of the Kansai Economic Federation, said Suga’s ascension “is reassuring for the Kansai business community. Governor Yoshinobu Nisaka of Wakayama Prefecture, which hopes to host one of the first three IRs, expressed his expectations that Suga “will move forward” with the delayed publication of Japan’s Basic Policy on IRs.
Suga has also said he’s committed to seeing the Olympic Games come to Tokyo in 2021, and plans to continue Abe’s focus on improving foreign relations.
