Former Japan Finance Minister Eisuke Sakakibara has been appointed Chairman of Yokohama’s Operator Selection Committee at its first meeting on Monday.
The Committee consists of seven experts from various fields related to the promotion of an IR, covering architecture, corporate management, security measures, economy, city planning, addiction measures, tourism, MICE and culture. They will openly solicit and select prospective Yokohama IR operators from a “position of fairness” and make recommendations to Mayor Fumiko Hayashi.
At the first meeting, Sakakibara was selected as chairman and Professor Norihiro Nakai of the Tokyo Institute of Technology selected as Chairman’s deputy.
The city department in charge also explained the IR direction announced by Yokohama city in 2019 and the schedule going forward. The subsequent conversation was decided to be not be held in public, including details of the second meeting and beyond, as “it includes a lot of information relating to the open recruitment of operators.”
