Osaka officials have reiterated the need for an integrated resort on the city’s Yumeshima island after it was revealed that the cost of building and maintaining facilities for World Expo 2025 are projected at almost JPY125 billion (US$1.1 billion).
According to the Asahi Shimbun, the total cost of facilities for World Expo – which Osaka is currently bidding to host – has been projected at JPY124.7 billion, including JPY54.7 billion yen for construction of facilities such as pavilions and JPY29.3 billion for infrastructure improvements at the venue.
The local government has already agreed to chip in one-third of the total cost and is looking to the private sector to cover another third, but it also wants an IR partner to cover remaining expenses as part of their own construction costs given that both facilities would be built on the same site.
Osaka is also considering making the IR operator pay some of the construction costs for a subway link to from Yumeshima island to the city, assuming it is successful in winning one of the three IR licenses set to be issued in late 2019. The cost of extending the Osaka Metro line has been estimated at JPY73 billion (US$641 million).
One stumbling block in that plan remains the collection of any private sector share, the Asahi Shimbun says, quoting Kansai Economic Federation Chairman Masayoshi Matsumoto as saying, “For this moment still we cannot disclose information on a concrete collection method.”
A senior member of the Kansai business circle also noted that such funding cannot be collected solely by companies in the Kansai area.
“We will ask various economic organizations in Japan to cooperate,” he said.
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