Japan Upper House Passes Casino Bill into Law

July 22, 2018

Tokyo- Japan's House of Councillors passed a bill to introduce casino-featuring integrated resorts into law on Friday, ahead of the end of the ongoing parliamentary session on Sunday.

The bill was approved by a majority vote at a plenary meeting of the the upper chamber of the Diet, the country's parliament, with support mainly from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, its junior coalition partner, Komeito, and Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party).

Despite major opposition parties' demand for thorough deliberations on the bill, the ruling bloc steamrolled its way to the vote after voting down a no-confidence motion against the cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at a House of Representatives meeting earlier in the day.

In the ordinary Diet session from Jan. 22, the casino bill was the Abe administration's second priority after work style reform legislation enacted late last month.

The introduction of casinos is "expected to provide a driving force for upgrading Japan to an advanced tourism country and produce major economic benefits," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a press conference.

However, the opposition camp argued that more people would suffer from gambling addiction.

During the session, a spate of scandals hit the administration, including its alleged favoritism toward school operators Moritomo Gakuen and Kake Educational Institution, document manipulation at the Ministry of Finance and an alleged cover-up of Self-Defense Force mission reports.

Yukio Edano, leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, harshly criticized Abe for behaving autocratically, in a speech before the Lower House to explain why his party and others jointly submitted the no-confidence motion. His speech lasted two hours and 43 minutes, the longest in the chamber on record. Jiji Press