As the year's ordinary Diet session nears a climax this week, debate is heating up over a bill Prime Minister Shinzo Abe characterizes as key to his growth strategy: the so-called casino implementation legislation.
The bill spells out a raft of rules on the structure of Japan's planned integrated resorts — nomenclature for casino resorts — and has ignited the ire of the opposition, as they face the prospect of it being forced through the Diet by Abe's ruling coalition despite its widespread implications.
The term integrated resort, or IR, refers to a comprehensive entertainment complex that, alongside casinos, incorporates facilities such as shopping malls, theaters, hotels and theme parks.