The Japanese government has drafted and announced the IR Development and Promotion Ordinance in anticipation of the establishment and development of integrated resorts, including a stipulation that the total floor space of any hotels within IRs must exceed 100,000 square meters.
This ordinance draft was created based on the basic concepts summarized last December by the government’s IR Promotion Council, made up of influential people. Specific numbers for the standards and requirements of the core IR facilities were presented.
The standard hotel floor space of hotels within IR properties is calculated taking into consideration the total number of guest rooms and minimum guest room floor space, percentage of suites and other factors and clearly states, “The total floor space of all guest rooms must substantially exceed 100,000 square meters.”
For reference, Tokyo Dome Hotel, with 43 aboveground and three underground floors, has a total floor space of 105,856 square meters. With this in mind, the hotels will be very large indeed.
Regarding MICE facilities, “The total capacity of the largest international conference room must be significantly more than 1,000 people, and the total capacity for the entire facility must be at least double that of the largest conference room.”
If the international conference room capacity is less, it may be combined with larger exhibition facilities. The space of the exhibition facilities combined with the international conference rooms must be between 120,000 and 200,000 square meters.
Furthermore, the maximum gaming floor space remains at 3% of the total floor space of the IR facility. Transactions exceeding JPY1 million between casino operators and customers will be subject to cash transaction reports.
The IR Development and Promotion Ordinance will serve as the platform for regional development plans created by local municipalities in the race to win the bid for an IR location. Based in part on public comments, the government will appoint the cabinet at the end of March and plans to implement it from 1 April 2019.
Public comments regarding this ordinance will be accepted until 4 March.
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