Japan’s Nagasaki prefecture (pictured) is to “downsize” and rename this year its department responsible for integrated resort (IR) topics, according to a meeting on Wednesday of the prefectural assembly’s general affairs committee.
The department concerned, had been dealing with the metropolis’ attempt at hosting a tourism resort with casino.
In late December, the Japan Tourism Agency – under the country’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism – had said Nagasaki’s IR proposal “did not meet the required standards” set by Japan’s national basic policy on IRs, and cited concerns about the financing arrangements.
Now, what has been known as Nagasaki’s “IR Promotion Division” is to be renamed the “IR Office”, with the change to be in financial year 2024 according to information from proceedings of the meeting, reviewed by GGRAsia’s Japan correspondent.
The announcement mentioned the number of staff at the IR Office would be smaller than under the IR Promotion Division banner, but did not give details.
The freshly-named office would “be in charge of coordinating with the [national] government in order to promote information disclosure regarding past initiatives,” separately reported public broadcaster NHK.
Late last month, Nagasaki prefecture’s governor Kengo Oishi said that – after advice from “experts in law” – the local authorities took the view it would be “almost impossible” for Japan’s central authorities to reconsider their decision not to approve the conurbation’s plan, submitted in April 2022.
A figure of JPY438.3 billion (US$2.95 billion currently) had been mentioned for the fundraising for the Nagasaki scheme.
The project was due to be on land at the Huis Ten Bosch theme park, in Sasebo city, which is part of the prefecture.
Nagasaki prefecture had said that the “financial arrangers” for the project included Credit Suisse AG, CBRE, and Cantor Fitzgerald Securities Japan Co Ltd.
At the time of the December 2023 decision against Nagasaki’s proposal, the tourism agency held a press conference mentioning that the prefecture would be able to submit a fresh plan for the next application window if it wished.
But the agency had nothing definite to say about the timing of a new application window, outlining that it could only be determined by an order of the national government cabinet, based on any proposal the tourism agency might make.
So far, only Osaka has been approved to host an IR in Japan, based on that prefecture’s plan – involving casino operator MGM Resorts International – also submitted in April 2022. Osaka and Nagasaki are the only two locations to have submitted an IR proposal to the national government.
In early September, the Osaka authorities had mentioned it would be “autumn 2030” at the earliest before MGM Osaka could open.
