Japan Seen Enacting Bill to Tackle Gambling Addiction Friday

July 6, 2018

Tokyo- Japan's Diet is expected to enact a bill to tackle gambling addiction at a plenary meeting of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of parliament, on Friday.

On Thursday, the Upper House Cabinet Committee passed the bill, cosponsored by the ruling bloc of the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito and opposition Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party), by a majority vote with support from the three parties plus the opposition Democratic Party for the People.

The plenary meeting will also hear explanations and questions on another bill needed to introduce integrated resorts with casinos.

Under the bill to tackle gambling addiction, the central government will be obliged to produce a basic plan for comprehensive countermeasures.

The prefectural governments will be required to make efforts to form related plans depending on their situations.

Komeito says the bill to address gambling problems should come before the casino legislation.

During the committee meeting, Shinkun Haku of the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan questioned the workability of the nonmandatory requirement placed on the prefectural governments.

Former Defense Minister Gen Nakatani of the LDP, who submitted the bill, replied that the requirement is nonbinding because medical and support systems vary from region to region and decentralization is important.

The government and ruling camp hope to enact the casino bill during the current Diet session ending on July 22.

The Upper House steering committee decided that deliberations on the bill will start Friday.

At a meeting of their Upper House affairs chiefs, the LDP and the Democratic Party for the People agreed to start detailed deliberations at the chamber's Cabinet Committee on Tuesday. Jiji Press