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Osaka Moving Forward with Integrated Resorts Planning

Article by : Helen Dec 23, 2020

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Just as officials in Japan intend to move forward with plans to host the 2021 Summer Olympics, officials in Osaka plan to do the same with the nation’s first integrated resort (IR) and casino project. They announced a January resumption of Osaka’s requests-for-proposal (RFP) to choose a developer for what likely would include the first legal gaming operation in Japan.

The COVID-19 pandemic put a hold on active planning for the big Olympics event that now looks more likely to occur with progress on COVID-19 vaccines readying for widespread distribution. Meanwhile, Osaka is preparing to become the host city for a 2025 World Expo and wants an IR project ready well in advance.

Olympics and World Expo events often mean erecting large exhibition buildings used for one extended international event and then left barren afterward. That is not the plan in Japan and especially not in Osaka. Instead, Osaka intends to build a world-class IR on the northwestern portion of reclaimed land called Yumeshima. The artificial island is the intended site of the Osaka-Kansai World Expo in 2025.

Osaka wants to build the nation’s first casino as part of its integrated resorts (IR) plan that is part of a larger national push for IR projects for the Olympics and long afterward. It officially opened the request-for-proposal (RFP) process in May but soon halted it due to the covid-19 pandemic. With matters much better in hand and vaccines reportedly on the way very soon, Osaka officials are reopening the RFP process in January.

The planned theme park and IR project would include an international exhibition center that holds up to 6,000 people. It also calls for a 3,000-room hotel, theme park, and a casino. Osaka asked interested parties to identify themselves as potential project operators for RFP participation. The Osaka RFP guidelines require information on exhibition space, capacities for conventions, a large hotel, and an attraction that promotes Japanese culture. The IR project should work as a gateway to the rest of the nation to promote national tourism as well as local visitation.

Osaka is Japan’s third-largest city and in 2017 saw 11 million visitors from overseas locations. Those 11 million visitors account for more than 38 percent of Japan’s total overseas visitation, with 60 percent coming from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Japan saw even more overseas visitors in 2018, and Osaka is a primary entry point.

Osaka Moyro Ichiro Matsui previously estimated a 2024 opening date for the IR project in order to be ready for the 2025 world expo. The casino portion of the project is enabled by Japan’s federal government legalizing casinos in July 2018. Governmental officials had debated the merits of legalizing casinos for two decades before going forward with the plan more than two years ago.

Osaka emerged as one of three cities vying for three available IR licenses that include casino gaming establishments. The other two leading contenders are Tomakomai and Yokohama. The recent announcement of going forward with the RFP process affirms Osaka officials anticipate winning one of the coveted IR licenses that are the first phase of a greater national plan.

National standards still are in the works, but Osaka’s proactive stance will help to move the process forward more quickly to ensure an integrated resort is open with all complications worked out in time for the 2025 expo. The Osaka prefecture and city government intend to invest a very impressive equivalent of $8.3 billion U.S. in the IR project. A world-class resort, exhibition center, and gaming operation that includes a culturally relevant theme park is a big gamble that Osaka is banking on being a big win locally and nationally.