Inside Asian Gaming

IAG JAPAN JAN 2021 26 Shinzo Abe was a leading proponent of introducing an IR industry to Japan as one such policy, aimed at driving inbound tourism. In 2019 Japan hosted 32 million tourists, of which 9.6 million were from China, up from just 2.4 million inbound Chinese tourists five years earlier. The Japanese government has a total inbound tourism target of 60 million visitors by 2030, of which around 18 million are expected to be from China. Abe resigned as Japan’s Prime Minister in September last year for health reasons, but his successor Yoshihide Suga spoke in the Japanese Diet’s House of Representatives on 28 October, confirming his belief that IRs are an important initiative for Japan in becoming a developed tourist destination and reiterating his intention to continue the pro-IR policy of his predecessor. This is unsurprising given that Japan’s new PM was Abe’s right-hand man for many years – even seen by some as a “shadow Prime Minister” during the Abe years. WHAT? So, what changed in 2020? In short – a lot. As with just about every other industry across the planet in 2020, the Japanese IR landscape was dominated by the global coronavirus pandemic. The pandemic caused a rush “back to base” for many expatriate executives from global IR companies who had been working in Japan. Worse, it effectively made travel to and from Japan all but impossible, meaning representatives of the world’s IR companies couldn’t meet with key stakeholders such as politicians, bureaucrats, contractors, potential consortium Osaka is still considered the most likely candidate to open Japan’s first integrated resort. 大阪は今でも日本初の統合型リゾートを開業する最も有力な候補地と見られている COVER STORY