An Osaka metro railway station that will serve MGM Osaka, Japan’s first integrated resort (IR) with casino, opened on Sunday, more than five years before the complex itself is due to launch.
Yumeshima Station links the rest of that Japanese metropolis to the artificial island in Osaka Bay where the under-development JPY1.27-trillion (US$8.14-billion currently) MGM Osaka will be located. The new station is on the Osaka Metro Chuo Line. The IR is due to open at the end of 2030.
The metro station’s launch now coincides with Expo 2025 Osaka, an international exhibition be held at Yumeshima from April 13 to October 13 this year.
Hiromasa Nakano, minister of land, infrastructure, transport and tourism, said at Sunday’s opening ceremony for Yumeshima Station, that it “should vitalise Yumeshima island by bringing a lot of people to the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo and the Osaka IR.”
The station has been constructed by extending the Chuo Line by 3.2 kilometres (2.0 miles) from Cosmosquare Station via an underwater link, the Yumesaki Tunnel.
The trip to Yumeshima Station takes about 30 minutes from Osaka Station, the rail transport hub at the city centre, according to GGRAsia’s Japan correspondent.
In November 2024, Osaka prefecture and city – with major railway companies in Osaka city – established a study group to look into how railway connections overall to Yumeshima island could be improved. The group’s work is scheduled to conclude in mid-2025.
A senior executive from Orix Corp, the main local partner alongside MGM Resorts International in the MGM Osaka scheme, said in recent comments it was “unlikely” there would be “any national competition in the short term” to that casino resort.
The national authorities have yet to announce any fresh round of applications for communities to host casino resorts, even though the current policy framework permits up to three licences.
