The Japanese Liberal Democratic Party has had a team studying the possibility of lifting the ban on casinos in Japan since February.
The party is responding to the demands of about half of the country’s prefectures who want to build casino resorts to attract tourists. They are joined by Shintaro Ishihara, the Governor of Tokyo Prefecture, who feels that the country is now dropping further behind other Asian nations in the provision of casino gambling.
This has been boosted by the number of Chinese citizens now able to travel and who have disposable income for gambling, which they enjoy in legalised jurisdictions all over south-east Asia. The expansion of Macau and Singapore and the continued debate in Taiwan about opening casinos, plus the growth of the legalised gambling market in other countries in the region, means that Japan is beginning to lag behind.
