More than 1,000 signatures have gathered to support a casino resort in Japan's Shinjo city in Yamagata Prefecture, said an executive at Shotokusa, which said it was acting as an advisory on the matter on behalf of a local company.
In late October, GGRAsia reported that the city of Shinjo may eventually become a contender to host an integrated resort (IR).
"The 'Shinjo City IR Hosting Committee', made up of members of the Shinjo City Junior Chamber of Commerce and other local business figures, has been working to explain the project to the citizens of Shinjo City and its surroundings, and in a very short period of time has received more than 1,000 signatures supporting IR," Shotoku President Hideenobu Takagi said in a commentary to GGRSia.
Shinjo City is a small community of about 35,000 people, close to Yamagata City, in the Tohoku region of Japan's main island. Yamagata has about 250,000 residents, and it is the prefecture's capital of the same name.
Takagi added, "The committee and its advisory member, Shotoku, are currently in talks with the department in charge of Shinjo City in consideration of the Japanese schedule."
The window for Japanese local governments to apply for the right to hold IR in the first phase of liberalization opened on October 1, 2021 and is open until April 28.
Under Japan's liberalization program, up to three casino resorts will be allowed nationwide. Currently, only three local communities are competing to hold such initiatives respectively: Osaka, Nagasaki, and Wakayama.
Shotoku Corp is a subsidiary of Japan's Current Corp, a company previously interested in developing an integrated resort in Nagasaki.
In late November, it was reported that another small Japanese city, Kuwana, asked Japan's prefecture to consider the feasibility of allowing a casino complex to be hosted. Kuwana in Mie Prefecture, in the Kansai region of the main Japanese island of Honshu, has a population of about 145,000.
