Japan Delays the Release of IR Basic Policy

Japanese government officials have announced that the timing for drafting the Basic Policy, which will stipulate the standards for Integrated Resort (IR) selection, is now up in the air.

The government had originally planned to draft the Basic Policy before July 26. However, as the Basic Policy will now require the inclusion of countermeasures for COVID-19, the government is proceeding cautiously and has deemed the timing for announcement of the policy to be “undecided.”

The government is, though, maintaining its goal of opening the nation’s first IR in the mid-2020s as a catalyst for increasing visitation to Japan as the pillar of the country’s growth strategy.

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That goal may already conflict with the plans of local officials, with Osaka having already abandoned its original ambition of opening an IR prior to the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Japan Expo, saying there is not enough time. Now, the fact is that there is officially no set schedule for drafting the IR Basic Policy.

The original expectation was that the policy would be announced in January of this year, based on the Basic Policy proposal, which was published in November 2019.