The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan (LDP)—the country’s main opposition party—intends to give its blessing within weeks to a proposed enabling bill for casino resorts says Gaming Capital Management (GCM), a Tokyo-based consultancy.
GCM cited comments from Kenji Tamura, a senior member of the governing party—the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ)—made at a recent internal meeting of the DPJ.
“A [DPJ] sub-committee on this issue has been set up last December, being set to commence activities soon. I heard that in the LDP, their target is to approve the bill at the end of February or in March,” said Mr Tamura.
The news of the LDP’s expected backing—following ongoing internal party discussions—emerged after the first DPJ Casino Working Team consultation meeting of 2012 on the integrated resort plan.
Issei Koga from the DPJ—and the chairman of an all-party group called the Diet Member Alliance for Promotion of Integrated Resort with Casinos (known by its abbreviated title IR Alliance) has indicated his intention to submit an all-party casino bill to the current session of the Diet—Japan’s parliament—at “an appropriate time”.
Mr Koga stressed however that with new integrated resort projects being discussed in neighbouring South Korea and other regional jurisdictions, speedy passage of enabling legislation for a casino or casinos in Japan would be vital to the success of the initiative.
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