Diet session now to end July 22
Japan’s ruling coalition, which supports the introduction of integrated resorts with gaming in the country, has won an additional 32 days to push though the IR Implementation Bill in the current Diet session.
Part I of the legislation, which approved the concept of IRs for Japan, passed in December 2016. Part II lays out rules and regulations for the resorts, fixing the tax rate at 30 percent and limiting gaming space to 3 percent or less of the total IR area.
It also includes measures to curb compulsive gambling among locals. Those including a mandatory casino entry fee of 6,000 yen (US$55) and weekly and monthly limits on patronage. But critics decry any plan to bring more gaming to Japan, which reportedly has 5 million pachinko addicts.
According to Inside Asian Gaming, after the bill passed through the lower house June 15 it was in danger of languishing when the ordinary 150-day parliamentary or Diet session ended June 20. But Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, also an IR booster, and Natsuo Yamaguchi, leader of coalition junior partner Komeito, agreed to extend the session by 32 days.
News reports including one in the Asahi Shimbun contend that the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito “railroaded” or “rammed” the bill through the Lower House Cabinet Committee.
At times lawmakers seemed close to blows in their debates on the matter. On June 18, before the lower house OK’d the bill, opposing Diet members tried to halt the proceedings. Opposition lawmakers rushed committee Chairman Daishiro Yamagiwa, trying to grab his microphone in a bid to sabotage the bill’s passage.
The legislation will bring three large-scale casino resorts to Japan in the first round of development. Two are likely to be sited in large metro areas, with the possibility that one license will be granted to a regional location.
Among those opposed to the IR bill are Toru Mihara, professor of comparative public policy at Osaka University of Commerce, who served as part of the government’s expert panel on casinos. He said Japanese casinos would not be able to attract VIPs unless a loan system was implemented, which could lead compulsive gamblers to rack up big debts.
The public also has not bought into the idea of integrated resorts. A national survey in April found that 71 percent of respondents felt there was no need to pass the casino bill in the current Diet session. Even among LDP supporters, 57 percent said there was no need to rush passage of the bill. And while the Abe administration pushed casinos as a way to stoke international tourism, some studies say that between 70 percent and 90 percent of the patrons will be Japanese.
According to the Jiji Press, the House of Representatives rejected a no-confidence motion submitted by the opposition against Tourism Minister Keiichi Ishii to block the casino bill. If the Diet passes the bill, the first casinos are likely to be opened in the mid-2020s. Should they prove successful, the government may consider a plan to expand the industry after seven years.
Nikkei Asian Review notes that global gaming operators are lining up to bid on one of the first three Japan licenses, waving billions of dollars at legislators who will choose the first licensees. Both Sheldon Adelson of the Las Vegas Sands Corp. and Lawrence Ho of Melco Resorts & Entertainment have pledged to invest $10 billion in a Japan IR if they’re chosen. Other casino giants lusting after a license include MGM, Caesars, Genting, Galaxy Entertainment, Hard Rock, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun.
Cities that have expressed an interest in hosting an IR include Tomakomai and Kushiro in Hokkaido; Sendai in the northeast; Wakayama in central Japan; and Sasebo in Nagasaki in the south-west. These will likely be pitted against big cities, including Osaka, as well as Yokohama and Chiba in the Greater Tokyo region.
“Integrated resorts will create new employment and culture, bolstering Japan’s international competitive power,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said earlier this month.
According to the Straits Times, gaming analysts say Japan’s casino industry could be worth about US$16 billion, about half of Macau’s yearly revenues and US$5 billion more than that of Las Vegas.
The opposition will not likely be silenced, however. Akio Fukuda of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan said casinos will “destroy the country and plunge the people into misery. It’s not a feasible growth strategy.”
The criticism notwithstanding, Toru Mihara, an advisor to Japan on the IR bill told the Macau News Agency, “With this new timeframe it is highly likely that the bill will pass the Diet.” And if it doesn’t, it could pass during an extraordinary session of the legislature between the end of September and early December.
