It seemed that the government of Osaka was bent on opening their integrated resort (IR) before the end of the 2025 World Expo. Now, however, that seems quite unlikely as the mayor of the city, Ichiro Matsui, has set a new timetable, determining that the IR opening may not occur until 2026. This new change will be included as part of the operator recruitment criteria.
The 2025 opening was set as an absolute deadline as recently as last week. On December 5, Hiroyuki Ikeda, a representative director of the Kansai Association of Corporate Executives, held a press conference where he explained that they wanted the integrated resort to have a full opening in conjunction with the 2025 Osaka/Kansai Expo. He pointed out that this deadline would make it most beneficial for the city to make an IR bid.
Ikeda seemed positive that the “Infrastructure development could be done if all of Japan was motivated.” The infrastructure was the major concern, as construction delays were viewed as the primary reason why the resort may not be able to open on time. This included the development of a convention hall, shopping mall, and hotel as well as other facilities.
Now that initial timetable appears to be all but dead. In a statement by the Osaka Mayor, he explained that “We cannot ignore the concerns of operators. We do not need to give up on Spring 2025 [for opening].”
He later added that even if the city and prefecture were working together with the operators, it would be impossible to reach the deadline. Admitting that they cannot enforce “impossible conditions” on their partners.
The challenge appears to be meeting the conditions of the IR Implementation Act. This requires that the five core facilities – which include an international conference and exhibition facility as well as hotels – be completed at the same time as the casino. There are additional requirements related to visitor capacity and the total area of the facility as well.
This seems to be where the city has fallen short. It is meeting the requirements by other operators involved within the project that simply cannot be met at this point. With the mayor acknowledging that it would be impossible to force these kinds of conditions on the operators, the project looks like it is destined to open no earlier than the spring of 2026.
