Two main cities in the Hokkaido prefecture in Japan have responded in the affirmative to a survey from the prefectural government on the topic of whether to have an integrated resort (IR) with a casino.
That is according to the results of the survey, covering all 179 of the island’s local governments, made public on Monday by the Hokkaido authorities, according to media reports. Hokkaido is the second-largest and most northerly of Japan’s four main islands.
The Hokkaido prefectural authorities said a total of 79 of its municipalities supported the idea of developing an IR on the island. Two cities – Tomakomai and Hakodate – separately said they would be interested in hosting such a casino complex.
Hokkaido has had a number of business-sector meetings recently, discussing the IR topic.
From a review by GGRAsia’s Japan correspondent of previous comment by Hokkaido’s government, Tomakomai (pictured), an industrial port city, was the prefecture’s priority candidate location for hosting an IR among three possible areas. That was prior to Hokkaido deciding not to join a first round of applications in 2019.
Suguru Kanazawa, mayor of Tomakomai, said recently that the city authorities were “willing” to work with local municipalities that intend to support Tomakomai’s bid to host a casino resort.
Last week, Jun Oizumi, the mayor of Hakodate, said in a press briefing that his government was keen in having a casino resort in the city, but that currently there was no plan to present such a proposal.
According to the prefectural government, 98 other municipalities replied they were “not interested” in seeing an IR in Hokkaido.
The only IR approved for the country so far is the JPY1.27-trillion (US$8.61-billion currently) MGM Osaka, due to open in 2030.
In June this year, a Japanese government official said the opening of a new round of IR hosting applications was “not far off”.
