With its launch on Tuesday of a Request for Proposals (RFP), Japan’s Aichi Prefecture has confirmed it is again considering an integrated resort (IR) licence bid.
In the first round of bidding in 2023, with three licences up for grabs, the government considered just two applications. Of those, only one was successful: a proposal by MGM Resorts International and Orix Corp to build an IR in Osaka.
The $10.2 billion project, on Yumeshima Island on Osaka Bay, broke ground in April 2025 and is slated to open in 2030. The government rejected a second bid by Casinos Austria and Nagasaki due to financing concerns.
The second bidding window will open in 2027, with applications to be filed from 6 May through 5 November.
Obstacles aplenty to Japan IRs
Ten years have passed since Japan legalised IRs, with the passage of the 2016 Integration Resort Promotion Act. In 2018, the Diet enacted legislation to specify resort areas, and the race was on.
Global gaming giants including Las Vegas Sands, Wynn Resorts and Melco Resorts & Entertainment expressed interest in the market, touted by some analysts as “the next holy grail of gaming”. Optimistic lawmakers hoped the first IRs would open as early as 2025.
Several factors slowed the momentum. They included the plodding pace of government deliberations, and regulations like limits on gaming space that were considered onerous by operators. The final blow: the onset of Covid-19, which stopped progress in its tracks.
Hopes for a second round of bidding revived last December, when a new Casino Regulatory Commission convened. It doesn’t hurt that Japan’s new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, is an IR proponent.
Elected last October, she is a devotee of late PM Shinzo Abe, who led the charge for IRs to grow tourism and international investment.
Analyst: Chubu Centrair Airport site is ‘near ideal’
Aichi describes its chosen development site at Chubu Centrair International Airport as “one of the world’s leading industrial clusters [with] a wide range of tourism resources in its surrounding region.” The prefecture’s stated goal is to realise an “international tourism city with MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and events) as its core”.
The location checks all the boxes, gaming analyst Andrew Klebanow tells iGB. “It’s literally near ideal,” he says. “You have an international airport serving about 20 regional and international destinations: Hong Kong, Singapore, Philippines.
It’s an eight-minute walk from baggage claim to the casino site. There’s a ferry terminal behind the casino development site, next to an underutilized convention center. Oh, and there are also a couple of thousand hotel rooms that are underutilized.”
Another plus: Since it’s at the airport, on a manmade island near the capital city of Nagoya, there is likely to be no local community opposition.
Aichi IR could boost visitation, population
Aichi considered bidding in the first round, but declined amid Covid complications. In February, Governor Hideaki Omura signalled the prefecture’s continued interest. According to the Yumiori Shibun, he said an IR could help offset declining population as well as sluggish tourism numbers.
“We need to make the city more appealing to keep people from moving away,” said Omura. “It is essential to lure people here from both in and outside Japan.” Chubu Centrair currently can serve 12 million passengers annually. It has set a target of 20 million by 2030.
The local government will evaluate proposals on a 1,000-point scale, judging: contribution to international tourism (450 points); economic and social impact (100 points); operational capability and stability (250 points); utilisation of casino revenue (50 points); and mitigation of adverse effects from casino operations (150 points).
Marjorie Preston
Marjorie began her gaming career in 2007 and has focused on Asian gaming markets since 2020. Outside of work, she writes about travel and film and plays the drums.
