Japanese political parties reach agreement, paving the way ahead for the IR Implementation Bill.
The wait for the go-ahead for casino gaming in Japan was a long one. The original plan of the in-power Liberal Democratic Party, led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, was to have several integrated resorts up and running in time for the country’s hosting of the Olympic Games in the summer of 2020. The plan did not come to fruition, due mainly to opposition from other political parties and several other issues that demanded more immediate government attention. The go-ahead was eventually given, but since then there have been a series of delays. A lot of the focus has been on how to minimise the possibility of problem gambling, the location of the IRs and how many there should be and the levels of taxation that should be imposed. The fragility of the LDPs’s grip on power, stemming from political scandals that reduced Abe’s popularity to its lowest level in his four terms as Prime Minister over the past 12 years, also became an issue.
