Japan’s cabinet has made a resolution on a 5.4 percent year-on-year increase in the draft annual budget for the Japan Casino Regulatory Commission for financial year 2026.
Under the proposal, the 2026 budget will rise to JPY3.91 billion (US$25.0 million) from circa JPY3.71 billion in 2025, according to materials issued by the commission and reviewed by GGRAsia’s Japan correspondent.
The Japan Casino Regulatory Commission, based in the capital Tokyo (pictured in a file photo), started in financial year 2023 implementation of licence-examination work and other casino regulation.
Japan’s first and so far only casino resort, the JPY1.51-trillion MGM Osaka, is due to open in late 2030.
Within the 2026 budget for the regulator, staff costs account for 63.2 percent, or JPY2.47 billion, up 9.3 percent from the previous year.
The number of Japan Casino Regulatory Commission staff for the financial-year 2026 budget plan is 168, up by just a single post year-on-year.
General operational costs for 2026 are forecast to be JPY580 million, or circa 14.8 percent of the total.
Costs to “establish an organisation to supervise casino operators and others” for calendar-year 2026 are set at JPY630 million, accounting for 16.1 percent of the annual budget.
The 2026 costs to “conduct examinations of casino operators and equipment providers to check the suitability for granting licences” is put at JPY220 million, flat compared to 2025, and representing about 5.6 percent of the budget.
There is additionally JPY540 million – unchanged from either 2025 or the year before – to develop information technology systems needed for the operation of the body. That amount is covered by the country’s Digital Agency”, a governmental unit set up in 2021 to advance digitalisation in the Japanese economy.
In June, Japan’s national government announced the appointment of Toshiyuki Shimada as secretary-general of the Japan Casino Regulatory Commission, effective from July 1. Mr Shimada had been serving as a deputy secretary-general of the commission, being previously with the country’s Ministry of Finance.
