Osaka governor asks Japanese government to decide on IR hosts

Ichiro Matsui, the governor of Osaka, has urged the Japanese central government to make the decision on the locations where integrated resorts (IRs) will be started.

The Japanese government had approved the Integrated Resorts (IR) Implementation Act, but had not specified the localities where IR facilities would start. That is why the Osaka Governor pushing for an accelerated policy formation by the national government. He said there is a need to choose an operator quickly.

“The central government can designate those local areas that have already raised their hands as ‘planned certification areas’ and then it would be okay to later narrow them down to three locations,” governor Matsui proposed. He also explained that the ‘planned certification area’ designation could help the local governments accelerate the process.

Even as the IR bill sailed through the Japanese Legislature, Governor Matsui expressed his concerns that bureaucracy may slow down the process, stopping Osaka from getting a casino up and running before the 2025 World Expo at Yumeshima. He said: “At this rate it will take them four or five years to select the locations.”

Source: focusgn.com