• Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is reportedly supportive of IR casinos
• MGM Osaka is expected to open Japan’s first casino in late 2030

Sanae Takaichi made history this week when she was sworn in as the first female prime minister of Japan. Her premiership could be a winning hand for global casino firms that remain interested in the Land of the Rising Sun.

Japan Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi arrives at the Prime Minister’s Office on Oct. 21, 2025. Takaichi is expected to revive talks about authorizing additional casino resorts. (Image: Prime Minister’s Office of Japan)

Takaichi’s ascent to the top lawmaking office in Japan came after Shigeru Ishiba resigned along with his Cabinet on Tuesday. Hours later, following Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) striking an alignment deal with the Innovation Party, she gained the narrowest of majorities to become PM.

Takaichi is the fifth consecutive LDP prime minister. She hopes to bring stability to the premiership after the position has now changed hands four times since Shinzo Abe’s September 2022 assassination. Takaichi’s premiership is also expected to reignite discussions about casino integrated resorts (IR).

IR Return

Japanese lawmakers passed a casino bill in 2018, authorizing the construction of as many as three resorts. A lengthy rulemaking and bidding process resulted in many big names, including Las Vegas Sands, Wynn Resorts, Hard Rock International, and Melco Resorts, folding on their bids.

MGM Resorts was the lone bid approved, with the company currently constructing a $9 billion development on Osaka’s Yumeshima Island in partnership with Japanese financial conglomerate Orix Corporation. Japan can grant two additional casino concessions, but for that to happen, another bidding round is needed.

During her first speech as PM, Takaichi pledged to strengthen Japan’s economy and establish a “growth strategy council.”

I will work resolutely for the sake of our nation and the Japanese people, filled with the determination to press ahead tenaciously under any circumstances. I will strive to build a strong economy, turning people’s unease and apprehension over their current lives and the future into hope,” Takaichi declared.

Takaichi later stated that her newly minted Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism, Yasushi Kaneko, has been told to “promote the development of IRs” and push initiatives to better realize tax revenue and economic benefits from both foreign and domestic tourism.

Abe was responsible for Japan becoming a casino market. The late leader championed the effort for Japan to diversify its economy by expanding general leisure tourism, with the thinking that large-scale integrated resorts with casino facilities would attract visitors from China, South Korea, and elsewhere throughout Asia. 

MGM Osaka Projections

MGM Osaka is on pace to open in late 2030. Government officials expect the casino resort to attract six million international visitors and 14 million domestic guests within its first full year of operation. Japanese residents will need to pay a ¥3,000 (US$20) fee to gamble. The entry for Osaka residents is double.

As for the casino, the law limits the gaming floor to more than 3% of the resort’s total indoor square footage. MGM hasn’t yet provided specifics, but it’s expected to have around 2,000 slot machines and 200 live-dealer table games.

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