Starting in 2019, officials in Osaka, Japan will start working to build the competitive partnership that could help it win one of country’s first three integrated resort licenses.
Ichiro Matsui, governor of Osaka Prefecture, told Japanese news agency Kyodo, “We will shortlist candidates by starting to assess their plans and willingness to invest early next year.”
According to GGRAsia, Matsui made the comments after meeting with Rob Goldstein, president and chief operating officer of U.S.-based casino operator Las Vegas Sands Corp., one of a long line of global gaming firms hoping to break ground in Japan. Osaka Mayor Hirofumi Yoshimura is also said to have attended the meeting.
Since casino gaming was first legalized in Japan in 2016, Osaka has been on board with the idea as a way to boost tourism and international investment, create jobs and generate new tax revenues. In August, Reuters reported that “at least” eight casino firms were interested in Osaka as an IR site, and executives from 11 casino companies made 25 “courtesy calls” to Matsui between 2012 and May 2018. The most likely site for an Osaka IR would be Yumeshima Island, which also will host the 2025 World Expo.
Another proponent of an IR in Osaka is Hiroyuki Fukano, a new co-chairman of the Kansai Association of Corporate Executives. “I would like to utilize the hosting of the World Expo and, as a second stage, the IR bid, as a turning point for development in the Kansai,” he told Asia Gaming Brief.
Meanwhile, Osaka leaders are also hard at work planning the World Expo, reported the Japan Times. Osaka first hosted the expo in 1970 and attracted some 64 million visitors over a six-month period. The theme of the 2025 event, to be held from May to November 2025, will be “Designing Future Society for Our Lives.”
At the same time, Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner Komeito have pushed through a controversial foreign workers bill that will help staff the new IRs. Melco Resorts Chairman and CEO Lawrence Ho told the Nikkei Asian Review that if his company wins an IR license, “We will need to bring in foreign expertise, just like how we did in Macau and Manila. We expect employees of between 10,000 and 20,000 will be needed, so we need help on the immigration side.
“The bulk of employees will eventually be Japanese,” Ho said, “but at the same time it is unrealistic to say so from the beginning, as the industry does not still exist in Japan.”
Inside Asian Gaming reported that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s immigration bill is meant to remedy labor shortages in Japan due to the country’s aging population, with the government hoping to bring in some 345,000 foreign workers over the next five years.
