Senior officials from Komeito, the coalition partner of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), have warned they will consider pushing back enactment of the IR Implementation Bill planned for this autumn until 2018 or later.
As reported by The Yomiuri Shimbun over the weekend, the falling approval rates of the Cabinet and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have prompted Komeito to relax its earlier support of the bill pending public consensus.
“At any rate, it should not be enacted at the [autumn] extraordinary session,” the outlet reported one senior Komeito member as saying, pointing to 2018 or even later as a more likely date.
Komeito leader Natsuo Yamaguchi was more measured in his reply to questions over the IR Implementation Bill at a press conference late last week, stating, “I want discussions to proceed while paying close attention to various responses from the general public.”
The LDP is still hoping to pass the bill at an extraordinary general meeting this autumn, having previously pushed through the IR Promotion Bill last December which effectively legalized casino operations across Japan. The IR Implementation Bill would set out the exact criteria under which Japanese IRs must operate.
Yamaguchi was one of 18 house members to vote against the IR Promotion Bill last year and said recently that his stance has not changed, while another senior Komeito official warned, “If we hastily enact a bill without the full understanding of the general public, it may spur a drop in the approval rating. It could affect the next lower house election.”
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