LDP victory could put brakes on Yumeshima IR development

Signs were emerging over the weekend that an LDP victory in the Osaka Cross Elections could lead to putting the brakes on the plan to build an IR at Yumeshima.

“Not based on the timing, we should move forward based on the opinions of the prefecture’s people,” said gubernatorial candidate Tadakazu Konishi at a press conference on Sunday.

Konishi is taking the position that while he is broadly in favor of the Yumeshima IR plans, he sees no reason to rush. Opening the IR before the 2025 World Expo is not a concern for him, as it has been for the Osaka Restoration Association leaders.

Public opinion polls in Osaka, like most of the rest of the country, have consistently shown a majority of the local people opposing the opening of a casino in their region.

Meanwhile, the Liberal Democratic Party has turned to Akira Yanagimoto once again as its candidate for the post of Osaka mayor. He was the same candidate who ran and lost against the Osaka Restoration Association’s Hirofumi Yoshimura in November 2015.

This time Yanagimoto will be running against Ichiro Matsui for the post of Osaka mayor.

Yanagimoto served as an Osaka city councilman from 1999 to 2015. He had been planning to run as a Liberal Democratic Party candidate for the House of Councillors in July, but was persuaded to take a second run at the Osaka mayoral post.

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