The appointment of Japan’s sixth prime minister in five years is unlikely to derail plans for casinos in the country claims Tokyo-based consultancy Gaming Capital Management (GCM).
“All major parties are positive about this idea,” said a spokesman for GCM after attending an all-party steering group of Japanese lawmakers last week. The issue may not be lack of cross-party support for casinos, but how much parliamentary time can be given to the issue by the incoming administration of Yoshihiko Noda, given the large number of items in the new prime minister’s ‘in-tray’ because of the current economic crisis facing Japan.
Around 20 lawmakers attended the latest meeting of the casino steering group, the General Assembly of International Sightseeing Industry Development Diet Member Association (known more informally as the ‘IR and Casino Diet Member Association’).
The association chairman Issei Koga, of the governing Democratic Party of Japan, said that with cross-party support it would be possible to put an enabling bill for casinos before the next extraordinary session of the Japanese parliament—known as The Diet. The bill would be a framework document with the details drafted later—a common administrative practice in Japan, where civil servants traditionally have a greater direct role in government than in Western democratic countries.
Mr Koga said casino resorts would be “enormously strong engines” for generating international tourism and attracting convention visitors. He pointed out it was important for Japan to move quickly on the issue as neighbouring jurisdictions including South Korea and Taiwan were trying to establish similar facilities. Mr Koga added that revenue from the proposed IRs could be used to repay special government bonds to be issued to fund the earthquake and tsunami recovery effort taking place in the Tohoku region of the country.
The bill proposed last week contains 23 articles—a revision from the 68-article draft version prepared previously. The new document states the purposes, definitions, basic policy, duty of the government, detailed legislation and key principles, as well as identifying the need for a casino administration committee, the implementation of governmental charges and the establishment of a body referred to as the ‘IR Promotion Headquarters’. The country’s prime minister will be in charge of the latter body.
GCM said the meeting was given a list of stated purposes for introducing IRs in Japan. They are: promotion of tourism; development of regional economies and contribution to the governmental budget.
The association heard that the central government’s guiding role in creating a socially responsible casino industry would fall under several headings:
- the development of an internationally recognised tourism area;
- strengthening international competitiveness of the country’s tourism industry;
- respecting and supporting regional development initiatives;
- regulation of casino operators;
- regulation of casino facilities.
The Minister of Land will be responsible for selecting the region or regions where integrated casino resorts are to be located. The competent authorities allowed to apply for IR development status will be prefectures, cities, towns or a consortium of such regional government bodies.
The bill as freshly drafted contains provisions for the establishment of a casino administration committee to authorise casino operators and to regulate casino facilities and operations. It clearly states that governmental revenue out of this IR operation can be used to help the recovery effort from the 11th March earthquake. As part of that process, some kind of entrance fee would be charged to customers. It wasn’t stated at this stage if the entrance fee payment would be offered on multi-entry basis as well as a per 24-hour basis (in the manner of Singapore).
Mr Koga stated that the bill calls for the legislative process on casinos to be completed within two years. He added that half of the members of a new steering body—to be called the IR Promotion Council—will be lawmakers.
The meeting heard that the casino bill has support from Japan’s smaller parties including New Komeito and Minna no Tō (translated as ‘Your Party’ or ‘Everyone’s Party’) as well as the ‘Big Two’—the governing Democratic Party of Japan and the main opposition the Liberal Democratic Party.
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