Japan moved another step closer to legal casino gambling after the lower house of parliament approved casino legislation.
Japanese legislators approved the Integrated Resorts Promotion (IR) bill on Tuesday despite lingering concern among the bill’s supporters and a show of defiance by anti-gambling legislators.
The IR bill was sponsored by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which holds a majority in the Diet, but some LDP members abstained from voting on Tuesday, including Defense Secretary Gen. Nakatani, who complained about the “heavy-handed” way the bill was rushed through a Cabinet committee on Friday.
The main opposition Democratic Party, along with the Liberal Party and Social Democratic Party, staged a walkout before the vote as a sign of protest. Communist Party members opted to remain in the chamber and vote their displeasure.
All eyes were on the LDP’s junior partner in the ruling coalition, the Komeito party, which has a conservative Buddhist bent. Friday’s committee vote went forward after Komeito’s leadership allowed their members to vote their conscience. Some Komeito members voted against the bill, including acting secretary general Shigeyuki Tomita, but the LDP’s majority assured a favorable outcome.
The bill now heads to the upper house, where legislators have promised to give the bill more careful study than it received in the lower chamber. However, the current Diet session ends on December 14, so the upper house plans to begin deliberations on Wednesday ahead of a possible vote as early as Friday.
The LDP holds half of the upper house seats, but should be able to rely on sufficient Komeito support to push the bill over the finish line. The focus now appears primarily about optics, i.e. reassuring the casino-wary public that sufficient scrutiny has been paid to the bill’s ramifications.
The IR bill would amend Japan’s constitution to remove the prohibition of casino gambling. Assuming that transpires, legislators would have one year in which to formulate a regulatory regime to oversee casino activity, before proceeding to the process of vetting applications by the many casino operators who have expressed interest in setting up shop in the valuable Japanese market.
