Yokohama officially withdraws from IR race in Japan, Osaka maintains candidacy

As the Japanese government prepares to launch its initial phase of casino gaming liberalization, three licenses for integrated resorts (IRs) were announced. However, securing proposals might be resulting harder than expected: on top of the withdrawal of some key foreign players due to the Covid-19 pandemic, now Yokohama’s Mayor Takeharu Yamanaka has announced the city is withdrawing from the casino race.

Yamanaka, new Mayor since being elected on August 22, announced in a press conference Monday, August 30: “We will promptly move forward the withdrawal procedures,” Japan Times reports. Moreover, a committee meeting slated for Thursday, in which an operator for the IR was to be selected, has been cancelled, and no such meetings will be held in the future.

Yamanaka won the election with over 500,000 votes, leaving behind Prime Minister-backed Hachiro Okonogi, former chairman of the National Public Safety Commission. Yokohama stepping down from the race to build the casino complex delivers a big hit to the government’s ambition, as it is Japan’s second-largest city in the country by population.

Moreover, the announcement sees global casino operator Genting Group losing its opportunity, as a consortium led by the company was the front-runner to be selected in Yokohama, followed by bidder Melco Resorts.

Osaka, the third most-populous city, is now the natural candidate for one of the licenses, while Wakayama and Nagasaki are other locations that could host the integrated resort. Nagasaki is set to run with a casino development with Casinos Austria, while Wakayama is in talks to develop an IR with Toronto-based private equity firm Clairvest.

In the following hours since Yamanaka announced that Yokohama would be withdrawing from the race, officials in Osaka reiterated interest in moving forward with a casino.

“I do not believe that the Yokohama mayoral election will have a major impact on Osaka’s IR project,” said Prefecture Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura during a press briefing. Osaka’s development proposes a partnership with a consortium led by MGM Resorts, and a potential plan values the IR in Osaka Bay at $9.1 billion.

Local authorities with plans to host a casino must first select a commercial partner and then apply to the national government for a license. Although by law three licenses will be issued, the government does not necessarily have to grant all of them, meaning Osaka, Nagasaki or Wakayama could see their plans not coming to fruition.

Proposals from local governments are set to be accepted between October 1, 2021, and April 28, 2022, with an initial phase of openings to take place in the latter half of the decade.