Miyagi governor slams door on IR bid

The final nail in the coffin for a potential IR bid at Iwanuma city appears to have been delivered with Miyagi Governor Yoshihiro Murai making explicit his negative view towards the notion.

At the same time, the equally skeptical Iwanuma Mayor Hiroo Kikuchi has been reelected to a fresh four-year term on Sunday after no other candidate stepped forward to challenge him.

At his June 4 regular press conference, Governor Murai expressed the view that an IR in Miyagi Prefecture would likely fail to be profitable due to the small population in the local area as well as the lack of foreign tourists visiting the region.

Miyagi was among of the prefectures in Tohoku worst hit by the 2011 tsunami, and much of the coastal region is still rebuilding after its near total devastation.

The Iwanuma City Council passed a resolution last June to launch a feasibility study for an IR bid, hoping that this measure could help revitalize the disaster-struck community, but their initiative failed to gain any political traction.

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