Nagasaki prefecture launched on Tuesday a period for written comments from the public regarding the draft of its District Development Plan concerning an integrated resort (IR). The opportunity for the community to provide feedback in writing will run until January 17.
Separately, formal public consultation hearings on the topic are due to start in February.
The district plan as outlined on Tuesday, mentioned the proposed casino resort would have a conference hall with capacity for 6,000 attendees, and also a concert hall. The resort would act as a “concierge” facility to introduce visitors from overseas to the culture, food and entertainment in the rest of the Kyushu region in which Nagasaki is located.
The draft plan does not show any information regarding Nagasaki’s selected private-sector partner Casinos Austria International Japan Inc’s plans for creating a consortium for the scheme, nor the funding structure for the project.
The prefecture has requested the names of the companies to be involved in the scheme be provided by its partner by the end of this month.
Casinos Austria has until the end of next month to present the financing plan for its JPY350-billion (US$3.09-billion) proposed scheme (pictured in a rendering), according to the timetable mentioned by the Nagasaki prefectural government.
The Japanese government opened on October 1 the application period for local authorities to pitch as host for a casino resort in that nation, and announced the weighting it will give when scoring such requests.
