Hokkaido reportedly skips Japan’s 2027 integrated resort application round

Japan's next integrated resort application round is set for 2027, and Hokkaido prefecture is reported to be sitting it out. The window itself spans 6 May to 5 November, according to the account. A Saturday article in the Hokkaido Shimbun, citing an internal decision made within the prefectural government, carried the news.

Per the newspaper, officials concluded the prefecture could not finish the IR District Development Plan in time to file it. The article gave no named sources for the choice to skip the round. It also said the prefecture weighed all public opinions and its own processes in reaching that point.

On 15 October, the prefecture put out a revised edition of its Basic stance on IR of Hokkaido prefecture document. The newspaper's account of how the government assessed the application timetable came after that release.

Skipping the round should not be read as the prefecture giving up on an integrated resort, the report said. It added that Hokkaido would keep pursuing the initiative, expecting economic benefits to spread across the prefecture. Still, the report noted, the prefecture's IR procedures have no specific timetable yet.

The newspaper estimated that a basic concept for an integrated resort might need roughly 1 year from now, with more work required before a district development plan could go in. Another 1.5 years could be needed for the statutory steps that follow, among them setting an implementation policy, running a request-for-proposal process to pick a developer, and drafting the IR District Development Plan. Those periods are the report's estimates of the effort involved, not a published schedule. Hokkaido has neither fixed dates for finishing the stages nor named a round it plans to enter.

Should the 2027 window be missed, the report said, a Hokkaido bid might slip to 2030, a year it flagged as a possible point for a third national application round. Neither of those is settled: the national timetable is unconfirmed, and Hokkaido has made no pledge to apply.

Under the country's present casino liberalisation rules, 3 integrated resort licences are available. Just 1 has gone to a recipient to date, MGM Osaka, with an opening planned for late 2030.

Even ahead of Japan's first application window, Hokkaido's name had come up as a candidate integrated resort site. In late 2019, though, the prefecture chose not to put itself forward for consideration. That step applied to the initial opportunity; the new report deals with the separate 2027 window.