The governor of Wakayama, Yoshinobu Nishaka, has called on the prefectural council to hold an extraordinary meeting in April on a date yet to be finalized. At the meeting, he will seek approval for a proposal by the local government to host an integrated resort (IR) in the Japanese society (pictured).
April 28 is the deadline for local governments to submit to the state under the theme of casino resorts.
The governor's congressional request came despite a parliamentary committee scrutinizing the matter saying it was still waiting for the current government to provide confirmation and details on funding for the scheme.
This is a 470 billion yen (4.07 billion yen) project described in a release issued by the prefecture in connection with its commercial sector partner Clarevest Nim Ventures KK.
On February 7, the prefectural council held the 3rd meeting of the IR Special Committee to review the draft casino resort district development plan.
The meeting also agreed that the current government could hold two public consultative meetings scheduled for March 12 and 13, even though IR funding has not been finalized.
Nevertheless, after the meeting, the chairman of the committee issued a statement.
"Unfortunately, the committee must say that the plan remains unclear in detail and is not convincing about fundraising. The committee strongly calls on the prefecture to show the certainty of fundraising at the next meeting of the [IR Special] Committee," said GGRAsia's Japan correspondent.
As of Tuesday, the date for the fourth meeting of the IR Special Committee was still to be announced.
On October 1 last year, the Japanese government held an application period for local authorities to attract casino resorts in the country and announced the weighting given when applying for such applications.
