A fresh round for Japanese communities to apply to host an integrated resort (IR) with casino may start in 2026, according to four sources spoken to by GGRAsia, based on information they have independently learned. Two out of those four sources suggested that the application would happen within the second half of 2026.
This was on the basis that only one such IR – the JPY1.27-trillion (US$8.53-billion currently) MGM Osaka – had so far been approved with the aim of a 2030 launch date, even though Japan’s enabling framework had anticipated up to three licences being issued, said the people.
They all requested anonymity. The people have either been involved in the initial liberalisation process or have been following it for years.
To date, there have been no public announcements from Japan’s national government on a fresh timetable for new IR applications.
The prefectural governments of Wakayama and Nagasaki had, though, respectively received questionnaires in November from the Japan Tourism Agency – a body under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism – on the IR topic.
Neither of the prefectures has made any public statements on whether they would participate in a fresh round. Wakayama had decided not to bid last time, and Nagasaki’s bid was not approved by the Japanese authorities.
Japan’s national authorities have been gauging since last year the appetite of local governments for hosting IR schemes, one source noted to GGRAsia.
Keeping the Japan IR topic ‘active’
One person that was willing to put comments on the record to GGRAsia was Mike Tanji, chairman of Tokyo-based Gaming Capital Management Inc. He said a fresh push might be to keep liberalisation under the Integrated Resort Act an “active” topic in the country.
Another person in Japan who has spoken publicly on the matter of a fresh application round is Norifumi Ide, a former commissioner of the Japan Tourism Agency, the body that coordinated the first round of applications and assessments.
At a committee meeting of Nagasaki’s prefectural assembly held in May last year, he urged the national government to launch soon a fresh round. That would help places currently mulling “under the surface” the idea of having an IR policy, to tackle the issue with more clarity, he had added.
One of the anonymous commentators to GGRAsia mentioned the possibility of a new Japan application round clashing with a liberalisation process in Thailand, and limiting the number of financially-capable international casino brands that would have the capacity to apply for Japan and Thailand at the same time.
Even though the Covid-19 pandemic interrupted the timetable for Japan’s first-round application process, the lead times taken to build such huge resorts – five or six years is not unusual – means the possibility that Thailand could also be opening its first resort at around the same time as MGM Osaka in late 2030.
The commentator, a gaming-sector executive, told GGRAsia: “There are only a few quality bidders [that] have the bench strength to participate in more than one [casino resort proposal]. Based on the terms as we know today, the Thai [gaming resort] licence will have priority.”
The person added: “The [Thailand] schedule is to commence the RFP [request for proposal] process as early as the end of the first quarter next year,” though the person also noted this was “subject to the political environment” in that Southeast Asia nation.
