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Ishihara's support for casinos changes with the times

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Even before Shintaro Ishihara was elected governor of Tokyo in April 1999, he was already one of Japan's most vocal proponents for legalization of casino gambling.

The reasons, according to a person in the former governor's inner circle, were that Ishihara -- despite his politically conservative and nationalistic leanings -- likes to experiment with new things. At the same time, he felt casinos would become a new source of tax revenues. In particular, it would be a practical means of developing the reclaimed land on Tokyo Bay, stepchild of the notorious "bubble economy," which was threatening to become something of a white elephant.

Another reason, reports Nikkan Gendai (Oct 31) was that in 2000, the year following Ishihara's election, the metropolitan government suffered a deficit of 620 billion yen, and at the time the bureaucrats and politicians were scrambling for all sorts of solutions.

"Whenever Ishihara had the opportunity, he would enthusiastically push the plan for a casino complex at Odaiba," said the aforementioned member of Ishihara's brain trust.

"If it brings in money, we'll try anything. A casino at Odaiba? Fine. I'm all for it," Ishihara told a news reporter in May 1999.

At a press conference in December of the same year, Ishihara said, "In America they don't say 'casino,' they call it 'gaming.' It might be a problem to have only a casino, so we would put it up together with a theme park." And in May 2001, he claimed that a casino at Odaiba would "create new employment for 10,000 people."

Although Ishihara repeatedly voiced concerns about wasting Tokyoites' tax money, from around this time, he and members of his inner circle took off on taxpayer-funded junkets to observe how gambling operations were conducted in Las Vegas, Macau and Australia.

The more vigorously Ishihara pitched the project, the more businesses hoping to profit from it submitted their proposals. An organization called JAPIC numbering over 100 companies began its own research, and came up with the projection that a casino in Tokyo would generate economic benefits of 220 billion yen. Taxed at the special rate of 10%, this would bring the government an additional 22 billion yen in revenues.

The interest in the casino project peaked around 2002, and then gradually began to fade. By June 2003, Ishihara remarked that "Under the current law, casinos are not feasible," and since that time he made practically no further comments on the subject.

"A nonpartisan group of legislators in the national Diet was formed to pitch a revision in the law controlling public gambling, but many of the members have ties to the pachinko industry," confides a former bureaucrat with the Tokyo metropolitan government. "In other words, casinos would cut into their business. The police, who have a collusive relationship with the pachinko industry, were the main force of opposition."

Somewhat ironically, after Ishihara seemingly lost interest in the casino project, the pachinko industry, considering future currents, began to collaborate with or invest in foreign casino operators, changing its direction 180 degrees to become supporters of prime minister Abe's recent proposals to rewrite the law.

"With Tokyo's selection as the venue for the Olympics, the 'Odaiba casino project' rose from the dead like a zombie," writes Nikkan Gendai.

Ishihara may be gone, but the torch has been passed to new runners: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Tokyo Gov Naoki Inose and -- another enthusiastic proponent -- Fuji TV, whose corporate headquarters are located in Odaiba.

What does the man on the street have to say about it? In an accompanying sidebar, of 1,489 people who responded to a poll on gambling via interactive TV, 58% gave thumbs down to casinos, versus 42% who support it. The main reasons for those giving negative responses were: Will jeopardize public safety (40%); more people will become addicted to gambling (31%); not interested in going to such places (15%); in any event, I'll lose money (8%); will tarnish the locale (4%); and will cause number of suicides to rise (2%).

Those in favor of casinos cited such reasons as the anticipated economic benefits, attraction of foreign visitors and new employment opportunities.

© Japan Today

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

20 Comments
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Japan already has so many different types of gambling, why not open casinos? Is there really any difference between playing slots in a casino, or doing it in a pachislot parlor? I don't think so.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

if they are so worried about people getting addicted to casinos, then why don't they do it like the south koreans? ban the locals from using it and only allow foreigners. it's that simple.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

I have quite mixed feelings about this. In the macro-environment, the taxes to the state and the number of jobs created would be significant, especially the Odaiba were developed as a vacation destination with the accompanying hotels, shows, resturants (sex shops), etc. In addition, I generally agree with the right of grown adults to make decisions (both good and bad) about how to allocate their scarce capital. However....

In my home town of Kansas City, we legalized "Riverboat Gambling" (The boats never leave the "dock.") in the early 90's. 5 Casinos came in and did indeed hire a large number of people. 5 years later, 3 of them when out of business laying off a large number of them. Furthermore, the jobs were not particularly well-paying (although one could make an arguement that it was better than the employed persons would have done eitherwise).

I only occasionally patronized these establishments and never let them take more than $100 from me, but I did notice that there were many people still wearing their day labor uniforms, staring vacantly at the slots, with several empty beer bottles in front of them. In short, I think that the main customers were those that could least afford to lose money. I know that it's their money, but did the state really need to legalize a business to help them lose it?

Speaking of gambling (I'm sorry, "Gaming") addiction, the State Govts. themselves can no longer live without the tax revenues the Casinos provide, thus giving the Casino's a more than is healthy amount of leverage to influence public policy. What do we think the Yamaguchi-gumi would do with an equivalent opportunity?

I'm just not sure that this is such a good idea.

7 ( +9 / -2 )

Lots of opportunity for anti-social groups (Y-san) to generate money, and funnel it where it has the most influence. The recent issues involved in setting up casinos in the Philippines should serve as an example, where massive bribes for permissions were the rule, not the exception.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Let's Gamble!!!!!!!!!!

0 ( +2 / -2 )

2003 is 'the times'?

0 ( +2 / -2 )

[Ishihara] claimed that a casino at Odaiba would “create new employment for 10,000 people.”

Those in favor of casinos cited such reasons as the anticipated economic benefits, attraction of foreign visitors and new employment opportunities.

Ah yes. Trotting out that old carrot called "job opportunities" when all it really means is thousands of part-time workers with poor conditions, no pensions or health insurance - and salaries too low to pay for them out of their own pockets. As for economic benefits, well I won't hold my breath expecting the Tokyo governor to cut taxes when all the moolah starts rolling in to the casinos, and I won't hold my breath for any trickle down effect either.

Sorry, what were the benefits again?

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Casinos and gambling were outlawed in my country because the games were well known to be mathematically 'unfair'. Casinos present games where, over time, each player will lose more than they win, based upon the finite probability of winning versus the payout of any particular success. Couple the insurmountable odds with the addictive nature of gambling and it was easy to see why such a practice was banned.

I dont believe in banning any activity, actually, but it bothers me when governments use confiscated wealth to enrich themselves. Even more troubling is when they enrich themselves with activities that they once outlawed because of the problems associated with it.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Of course Ishihara supports gambling, it opens an entirely new and huge field of potential graft and corruption, as well as allowing the government to create yet another level of bureaucracy. It's a win-win for the casion operators and the thieves in government who need a new source of money to squander.

Legalizing casinos in Japan will do nothing to reduce government debt or alleviate budget problems. If casinos provide an extra 20 billion yen per year in revenue, the government, following past examples, will spend an extra 40 billion yen. The Japanese government is addicted to deficit spending, and legalizing gambling will only motivate it to spend more.

I remember when California approved it's state lottery, which was supposed to benefit the schools. But it did nothing of the sort. For every dollar the lottery added to school funding, a dollar of conventional funding was diverted to non-education projects. The quality of education in California is worse today than it was before the lottery was introduced, and the schools are still complaining about large class sizes, and lack of resources.

I would only agree with legalizing gambling in Japan if it followed the same system used in Singapore, meaning that only tourists may use the casinos, and the Japanese cannot. Then Japan receives the financial "benefit" of casion revenue, without having to deal with the huge social problem of gambling addiction, which is already a big enough problem here.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

I'm fine with having casinos here, just not fine with the ease in which the Yakuza will become involved. They'll see the yen signs and run the show!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Whilst opening up casinos has generated a lot of money for 'some' in Singapore, it has created a whole lot of social and addiction problems for many more people.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Japanese people are already addicted to gambling and gaming, so a few more avenues are not going to hurt. I don't think the future of the gaming industry is in bright lights and casinos though - the future of the gaming industry is online. Japan needs to use it's super fast internet to create hubs for global online gaming networks - that is where the money is.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Ishihara has caused more damage to Japan than any other man since Koizumi. Any idea he has is bound to lead to disaster.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Ceate new employment for 10,000 people?! It may create 10,000 new jobs but it also creates 100,000 gamblers. It just adds another toxic to the society. Imitating always what America does is not good as you already know. You see what America now became. Have you been to Las Vegas? If you have been there once, you would know that the place is not for intelligent people. I was curious and I was there once. Once was enough for me. The lights were on all night! The lights shined in the middle of the desert. What a waste! Some people think the lights are beautiful but I did not. The view was so unreal and strange. The whole things are so unnatural and anti-environmental.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I love the idea. We enjoy the occasional outing back home in Texas to a reservation casino, and it's not JUST gambling. As in Las Vegas, especially, there's live entertainment, gorgeous hotels, an air of excitement, and great food at attractive discounts.

I agree with an earlier poster who said there are already a number of forms of "gaming" in Japan. This just promises to be a lot more upscale. So why not?

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

In Nevada, we call Casino-hotel. We don't call gaming or gambling/ Is Godaiba ice free and snow free? There are Reno and other cities that has casinos but Las Vegas. N. Las Vegas and Henderson have plenty of casino-hotels. Casino-hotels are not built by government, About more than 2 billion dollars to build/ We don;t have state tax, no gift tax. Just live here not knowing what is snow or tax. I read that LV Sands, MGM Entertainment, and Wynn Resort are proposing to build Casino-Hotels in Japan. Employments? When recession came, they employed bunch of College degreed people who moved to Vegas area. They still have openings. No pachinko/. they expanded to So. East Asia to cater to Chinese multi millionaires and billionaires. Not local people. All Casino hotels donate school buildings and many charitable things because we no longer have Godfather of Las Vegas or other Mafiosos. that donate hospitals, etc. People call gaming for Nintendo type game, not casino.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

One thing that will be VERY interesting to see if Japan legalizes casino gambling is will they allow gambling in a a casino using a variant of the hanafuda cards or Japanese-style richi mahjong. Mind you, I'm not even sure how many Japanese know how to gamble using hanafuda cards, though....

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Casino will obviously ruin so many lives, divide between the rich and the poor, and the Las Vegas casino owners will only take advantage of it. Pachinko is a much milder form of gambling. I'd say having pachinko is really enough for people's entertainment.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

@Raymond: Oichokabus are unlikely used in Table Games because Chinese do not know how to play. More than 50 table games and casinos give leaflets of Casino edges and Banker edges. But these are just for customers to learn. House edge differs for different betting money, Unles you are Math genius who can do mental comoutation for each player,s cards, stay away from table games. Years ago there were people who did "card counting" by pad of papers and calculators on the table but those people were gone. It is illegal to do that now. Just let Chinese spend (to be gypped). You can compute total winning percentage of any Video Games, but not pachinko.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Put it in Okinawa, it a FTZ area, perhaps would benefit with minimum impact on locals....I must say Ishihara is quite the card; he shut down prostitution in many areas and tried to overhaul Roppongi, then he wants go and create a similiar enviroment on a grander scale.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

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