The Japan Tourism Agency (JTA) has named a total of eight areas currently planning or strongly considering a bid for an integrated resort license, although there could be another two late candidates according to local media reports.
The eight initial candidates were confirmed by Japan’s Tourism Minister Kazuyoshi Akaba on Tuesday during a press conference in which he released the details of a recent prefectural survey conducted by the JTA.
The eight locations include Osaka city and prefecture, Yokohama, Tokyo, Hokkaido, Wakayama Prefecture, Nagasaki Prefecture, Chiba and Nagoya.
According to Akaba, further interviews will now be held with officials from the eight candidate areas to determine the current status of their bids.
In addition to the eight, Jiji Press reported on Tuesday that two more cities – Kawasaki and Hamamatsu – are considering IR bids.
As per the central government’s IR Implementation Bill, which was passed in July 2018, a maximum of three locations will receive IR approval in Japan with two expected to be in metropolitan areas and one located regionally.
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