Japan’s Diet session to be extended

Japan’s lower house has voted to extend the current Diet session until 22 July in order to pass key legislation, including the long-awaited IR Implementation Bill.

The IR bill passed through the lower house on Tuesday but was in danger of stalling again with the standard 150-day Diet session originally due to expire on Wednesday 20 June. Those fears have now been allayed with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the leader of coalition partner Komeito, Natsuo Yamaguchi, agreeing on Wednesday to extend the session by 32 days.

Despite the ruling coalition’s success in pushing the session’s deadline to get the project debated and its optimism around its chances to be turned into law, opposition parties remain concerned about potential loans from casinos to wealthy gamblers and other topics in the bill. Still, the proposed legislation has sailed through the committee and, afterwards, through the lower house, so it’s highly likely that lawmakers will approve the casino regulation.

Should the bill get passed in the House of Councillors, the casino industry will be able to arrive in Japan and it is expected that the first licences will be issued by 2020. Integrated resorts would then be built in three different locations in the archipelago and forecasts have them beginning operations around 2025.