Wakayama IR Experts Committee Holds its First Meeting

The Wakayama IR Experts Committee has held its first meeting and discussed the best way to bring an IR to Marina City. Tokyo University Professor Emeritus Motoshige Ito chairs the committee.

“There was discussion about what could be done from experts in psychology and food culture. Also quite a bit of talk about other subjects such as tourism,” Emeritus Motoshige Ito said.

Wakayama Governor Yoshinobu Nisaka, Former Kansai Electric Power Company Chairman Shosuke Mori, Greenberg Traurig Tokyo Office Managing Partner Koji Ishikawa, Washoku Japan Director Yoko Okubo, Japan Travel and Tourism Association Chairman Shigeto Kubo, and Kyoto University School of Government Honorary Fellow Hidetaka Saeki have also attended the meeting.

The government is confident that it will be one of the three chosen to host the first IRs in the country. It was the only one, besides Osaka and Nagasaki, to voice their interest in the segment on the earlier stages.

Wakayama has already set aside nearly €1.6 million in next year’s budget for IR-related research and other costs. The prefecture expects four million visitors per year once the venue it’s finally opened.