The Japanese government yesterday said it has approved a controversial plan to build the country’s first legal casino in Osaka, hoping to draw tourists after years of wrangling.
The local governments of Osaka and Nagasaki in western Japan have long sought approval to build an integrated resort (IR) including casinos, convention centers, hotels, restaurants and entertainment venues.
The Osaka plan, which aims to open the casino by 2029, was approved after “sufficient examination from various perspectives,” Japanese Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Tetsuo Saito said.
Photo: AFP
“We expect the IR will become a tourism base that will disseminate the charm of Japan,” he said.
Japan was long the only developed nation that banned casinos, but it in 2016 passed legislation paving the way to make the industry legal.
In 2018, the Japanese legislature enacted a law allowing the construction of integrated resorts.
Critics warn that approving casinos could worsen the country’s already significant gambling problem.
A 2021 government survey found that about 2.2 percent of the population, or 2.8 million people, are affected by gambling addiction.
Many are hooked on pinball-like pachinko slot machines, which together annually generate about ￥14.6 trillion (US$1.1 trillion) in revenue.
About 7,600 pachinko parlors dot the nation, many readily accessible near train stations, using legal loopholes to let winners exchange tokens for cash.
The country also has a multi-trillion-yen market for government-controlled races of horses, motorcycles, boats and bicycles, along with soccer betting and a lottery.
The government says any integrated resort seeking approval would have to submit their plans to prevent gambling addiction.
There is a cap on the number of visits to a facility by Japanese, and family members can request a relative be banned from entering a casino, Saito said.
Right-wing political scientist Laura Fernandez on Sunday won Costa Rica’s presidential election by a landslide, after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to the cocaine trade. Fernandez’s nearest rival, economist Alvaro Ramos, conceded defeat as results showed the ruling party far exceeding the threshold of 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff. With 94 percent of polling stations counted, the political heir of outgoing Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves had captured 48.3 percent of the vote compared with Ramos’ 33.4 percent, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said. As soon as the first results were announced, members of Fernandez’s Sovereign People’s Party
EMERGING FIELDS: The Chinese president said that the two countries would explore cooperation in green technology, the digital economy and artificial intelligence Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday called for an “equal and orderly multipolar world” in the face of “unilateral bullying,” in an apparent jab at the US. Xi was speaking during talks in Beijing with Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi, the first South American leader to visit China since US special forces captured then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro last month — an operation that Beijing condemned as a violation of sovereignty. Orsi follows a slew of leaders to have visited China seeking to boost ties with the world’s second-largest economy to hedge against US President Donald Trump’s increasingly unpredictable administration. “The international situation is fraught
MORE RESPONSIBILITY: Draftees would be expected to fight alongside professional soldiers, likely requiring the transformation of some training brigades into combat units The armed forces are to start incorporating new conscripts into combined arms brigades this year to enhance combat readiness, the Executive Yuan’s latest policy report said. The new policy would affect Taiwanese men entering the military for their compulsory service, which was extended to one year under reforms by then-president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in 2022. The conscripts would be trained to operate machine guns, uncrewed aerial vehicles, anti-tank guided missile launchers and Stinger air defense systems, the report said, adding that the basic training would be lengthened to eight weeks. After basic training, conscripts would be sorted into infantry battalions that would take
GROWING AMBITIONS: The scale and tempo of the operations show that the Strait has become the core theater for China to expand its security interests, the report said Chinese military aircraft incursions around Taiwan have surged nearly 15-fold over the past five years, according to a report released yesterday by the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Department of China Affairs. Sorties in the Taiwan Strait were previously irregular, totaling 380 in 2020, but have since evolved into routine operations, the report showed. “This demonstrates that the Taiwan Strait has become both the starting point and testing ground for Beijing’s expansionist ambitions,” it said. Driven by military expansionism, China is systematically pursuing actions aimed at altering the regional “status quo,” the department said, adding that Taiwan represents the most critical link in China’s
RSS