With the Yokohama mayoral elections scheduled for 22 August due to the expiration of current Mayor Fumiko Hayashi’s term of office, the Yokohama Future Concept Conference has been launched as an effort to support a mayor who will realize a “Yokohama that does not rely on casinos”.
Chairing this conference is 90-year-old Yukio Fujiki, who also serves as chairman of the Yokohama Port Harbor Resort Association.
While Yokohama city is proceeding with an IR bid, this group is determined to verify and propose an administration against an IR bid for Yokohama.
According to local TV outlet Kanagawa, at the commemorative lecture after the conference’s inauguration ceremony, Chairman Fujiki said, “Yamashita Wharf is a ‘diamond’ of the earth. It is a place that will tell the fortune of what Yokohama and Japan will do for the future.”
Further, there were calls for cancellation of the Tokyo Olympics at the conference, due to the inability to control Japan’s ongoing and most severe COVID-19 outbreak to date.
Many from the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party were also present at the ceremony. Unlike previous opposition groups, IRs are no longer a one-group issue.
Masataka Ota, a member of the Yokohama City Council who opposes the IR bid, and Akiko Fujimura, the representative director of an animal rights group, have expressed their intention to run for independent positions.
Mayor Hayashi has not disclosed her position about whether she will run for office again. According to the regulations of the LDP (Liberal Democratic Party), the party is not officially recognizing or recommending Mayor Hayashi, who would be running for a fourth term. It seems the LDP is also having difficulties in candidate selection and while there are rumors of a number of different candidates, at this point in time there is no telling how the election will go.
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