JAPAN – IR threatened by possible fall of Abe
500 Dot Com scandal and Coronavirus plus corruption can hurt IR casinos plan
The question in Japan seems to be, how long can the electorate put up with corruption in high government places? A question more in tune with third world countries, as reports about the level of corruption and incompetence in prime minister Shinzo Abe’s administration have placed more pressure on the possible collapse of Japan’s pro IR policy.
The 500 Dot Com bribery scandal that implicated and discredited some of the most enthusiastic pro-IR politicians, such as former Cabinet Office minister Tsukasa Akimoto and former Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya, seems to have caused the central government to delay publication of its basic IR plan, leaving local governments guessing about the specific national policies right at the time they are supposed to be moving forward with their RFP processes and selecting their IR operator partners.
For a while now, local governments that had been wavering about whether or not to join the IR race seem to have decided that the political risks to move for IR projects were simply too high, and currently there are only Yokohama, Osaka, Wakayama, and Nagasaki confirmed to be in the IR running and willing to move forward with IR licensing bids.
More importantly, however, is the questions about whether or not “the scandal-ridden and increasingly corrupt Shinzo Abe administration can really be trusted to responsibly manage a multi-billion-dollar new industry that is flush with cash.”
Japanese society as a whole is generally regarded as honest and public-spirited, the deepest rot might be found right at the top, with a regime that has become all too comfortable with lying to the parliament, shredding documents, turning a blind eye to payoffs, silencing democratic watchdogs, and politicizing the prosecutor’s office
AGB Nippon reports that, ‘the 500 Dot Com bribery scandal intensified public opposition to IR development. Rather than witnessing the gradual “education” of the Japanese public that IRs do not equal sleazy gambling parlours, and are instead clean fun for the whole family, the deeply-ingrained negative image that the industry is a magnet for crime and iniquity has been reinforced.’
General elections are scheduled latest by 22 October 2021, as required by the Constitution of Japan, but Abe’s plan to call for a snap election in 2020 in autumn after this year’s Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, is now anyone’s guess, as Coronavirus changes the political and economic landscape of the world.
Gross government mishandling the Covid-19 stricken Diamond Princess cruise ship affair, following on the 500 Dot Com casino bribery scandal have seriously damaged confidence in Abe’s chances of electoral success in the next elections.
The nightmare scenario for the gaming industry—which is no longer out of the question—is that an Abe successor would be a conservative with no strong personal ideological objections to IR development, but also unwilling to spend his or her political capital to advance a policy that is so manifestly unpopular with the general public.
