Chamber of Commerce asks Mie Governor to consider IR bid

The Mie Prefectural Chamber of Commerce and Industry formally requested Mie Governor Eikei Suzuki on Monday to conduct research with an eye toward making an IR bid.

Led by Chairman Naoyuki Okamoto, the business group argued that with the anticipated 2027 completion of the Linear Chuo Shinkansen, a maglev train project that is expected to reduce travel time from Tokyo to Nagoya to only 40 minutes, “it is necessary to promote large-scale projects from a medium- to long-term perspective.”

Last December, Nagoya Mayor Takashi Kawamura made the abrupt suggestion that Nagashima Spa Land, a major amusement park along Ise Bay in Kuwana city, Mie Prefecture, would be an excellent site for an IR.

Both before and after his reelection in April, Governor Suzuki has neither encouraged nor rejected the possibility of an IR bid, and this time as well it seems that he gave no clear answer.

This is, however, the first time that a significant interest group from within his prefecture—as opposed to a mayor outside of Mie—has proposed a local IR bid.

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