Osaka Casino Backed by Prefecture Assembly, IR Plan Nears Submission

March 25, 2022 Japan Emerging Markets

Osaka’s dreams of becoming home to a multibillion-dollar integrated resort (IR) took a major step forward this week, with the prefecture’s legislative assembly ratifying the MGM Resorts-led development plan.

A consortium from MGM Resorts and Japanese financial services firm Orix has proposed building a JPY1.08 trillion (US$9.1 billion) on Osaka’s Yumeshima Island.

The prefecture’s 84-member lawmaking body, which is controlled by the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito Party, today voted heavily in favor of moving forward the casino blueprint — officially known as the “IR District Development Plan.” GGRAsia first reported on the Osaka assembly backing the IR project.

The assembly vote came during the legislature’s final session day.

Island Worries
Japan legalized as many as three commercial IR developments in July of 2018. Four years later, the central government is only now fielding casino submissions from interested prefectures and their preferred development group. The submission period runs through April 28.

Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism (MILT) will grade each IR submission out of a possible score of 1,000 points. But with only three prefectures currently interested — Wakayama and Nagasaki being the other two — the odds of each prefecture receiving an IR concession are seemingly strong.