Wakayama’s IR Bid Near Collapse After Assembly ‘No’ Vote

Body

The Wakayama Prefectural Assembly has voted down the city’s proposed integrated resort (IR) package, condemning the city’s bid to likely failure just eight days before Japan’s national application deadline.

In another blow for both applicant Clairvest Group and the troubled national scheme to create an IR segment, the assembly’s plenary session on Wednesday (April 20) rejected the plan by 22 to 18 votes.

“No” votes included increasingly sceptical members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has championed IR reforms nationally.

Assembly members were spooked by doubts aired on Tuesday at a special IR proposal committee meeting over the financial viability of the proposal, the uncertain participation of a Japanese bank and a lack of documentation, among other matters.

For some months pressure has been building on the proposal amid public activism and political disquiet, leading to key LDP members switching sides after the special committee’s rejection of the IR development plan in a 10-5 vote, paving the way for Wednesday’s failure in the wider assembly.

The special committee also said that prefectural officials responsible for shepherding the ¥470bn ($3.7bn) bid may have misled it over the bidders’ supposed securing of funding from Credit Suisse and the extent of participation of a Japanese bank.

The committee therefore announced the formation of a new special committee to probe the city government’s handling of the matter.

The Clairvest Group consortium, whose subsidiary Clairvest Neem Ventures (CNV) had partnered with Caesars Entertainment and Wakayama City to secure an IR licence, was not available for comment.

CNV official Mario Ho, son of the late Macau gaming patriarch Stanley Ho, addressed the special committee online prior to the “no” vote, seemingly with little persuasive effect.

The national deadline for regional IR applications is April 28, leaving the Clairvest Group consortium and Wakayama City authorities with almost no time to regroup and secure the necessary imprimatur of the Prefectural Assembly.

That outcome will almost certainly result in only two applications for a maximum three licences nationwide.

Also on Wednesday, the second of those applications was confirmed, with the Nagasaki Prefectural Assembly approving its own development package for an IR at Sasebo City’s Huis Ten Bosch theme park.

Osaka is the only other region whose bid has been approved by the regional legislature.