Yokohama Looks Set to Sit Out Japan's 2027 IR Round as No Mayoral Candidate Backs a Casino

Seven candidates filed on Sunday for the 18 October election to replace Takeharu Yamanaka, and Yamanaka is one of them. The frontrunner, backed by four ruling and opposition parties, has ruled out an integrated resort, and the others oppose one, seven months before Japan opens applications for its two remaining licences.

• Seven candidates filed for Yokohama's mayoral election when the campaign formally opened on 4 October, and none supports bringing an integrated resort (IR) with a casino to the city, according to Japanese press reports and Casino.org
• Lawyer Atsumi Harasawa, seen as the frontrunner and backed by local branches of four ruling and opposition parties including the Liberal Democratic Party, said when she declared on 10 September that she has "absolutely no intention" of pursuing an IR
• Former mayor Takeharu Yamanaka, who resigned in September after a workplace harassment finding, is standing again and says he will "firmly block" what he calls moves to revive the bid
• Japan will accept applications for the two remaining IR licences from 6 May to 5 November 2027 under a cabinet order issued in March; only Osaka's MGM-ORIX resort has been certified
• Aichi is running a formal operator search for a site on the Chubu Centrair airport island, and Hokkaido is revising its IR policy, while Casino.org reports that only Bally's and Galaxy Entertainment have publicly expressed interest in bidding

The Candidates Have Settled the Question Before the Vote

Japan's second city looks set to stay out of the country's next round of casino licensing. Yokohama's special mayoral election, called after Takeharu Yamanaka resigned over a third-party finding that he had repeatedly harassed staff, opened formally on Sunday 4 October with seven candidates, according to Kyodo News. Voting is on 18 October. Casino.org, which first reported that the city is likely to sit out the 2027 bidding round, says none of the seven supports a casino development, and the tabloid Tokyo Sports reported after nominations closed that the remaining candidates all oppose an IR, so the issue has not become a point of contest.

When we reported Yamanaka's resignation in September, the shape of the race was unclear. It is now settled. Attorney Atsumi Harasawa, 59, is backed by local organisations of four ruling and opposition parties: the Liberal Democratic Party, Nippon Ishin no Kai, the Democratic Party for the People and Komeito, according to the Kanagawa Shimbun. She had already closed the door when she announced her candidacy on 10 September, telling the Nikkei that she understood the matter had been decided five years ago and that she had "absolutely no intention" of pursuing an IR. Our report of 12 September said she had not stated a position; her statement had in fact been made two days earlier.

The Mayor Who Ended the Bid Wants His Job Back

The other change is Yamanaka himself. He announced on 29 September that he would stand again as an independent without party backing, according to the Tokyo Shimbun, proposing an anti-harassment ordinance and arguing that "there are measures that can be taken precisely because I was the perpetrator". On the IR, he said he sensed moves to bring it back and would "firmly block" them. He first won in 2021 on an explicitly anti-IR platform and withdrew the city's bid on taking office.

The rest of the field leans the same way. Former lower house member Kazuma Nakatani, 43, supported by the Constitutional Democratic Party, has made "zero casinos" one of his pledges, according to Casino.org. Civic group leader Sachiko Fujikawa, 51, took part in the campaign against the IR and wants the plan for Yamashita Pier, the waterfront site the city once earmarked for the resort, reviewed, according to the Kanagawa Shimbun. The Pritzker Prize-winning architect Riken Yamamoto, 81, whose late entry was accepted at nomination, has proposed an alternative development of the pier, according to Casino.org. Japanese Communist Party official Yuka Asaka, 46, and Sanseito-backed executive Atsushi Fukuyama, 37, complete the field.

The National Window Opens in May

Yokohama's choice matters because the national process has a timetable. The government fixed the second application period as 6 May to 5 November 2027 by cabinet order, promulgated in March, according to the Japan Tourism Agency. Under the IR Act, prefectures and designated cities apply jointly with a private operator, and up to three areas can be certified. Only one has been: Osaka's Yumeshima project, led by MGM Resorts and ORIX, certified in April 2023, which broke ground in April 2025 and is targeting an autumn 2030 opening. Nagasaki's plan was refused in December 2023 after the review committee found insufficient evidence, including on the certainty of its financing.

Other localities are moving. Aichi Prefecture reopened its study in February and on 1 April began a formal call for operator proposals for a site on the Chubu Centrair International Airport island, with final proposals due this autumn, according to the prefecture. Hokkaido presented a revised draft of its basic approach to an IR to the prefectural assembly on 7 September, after Tomakomai reaffirmed its interest in a prefectural survey published in August, according to the Hokkaido Shimbun, although the governor has avoided committing to a bid ahead of the April 2027 gubernatorial election. Hokkaido withdrew from the first round in 2019. On operators, Casino.org reports that only Bally's and Galaxy Entertainment Group have publicly expressed interest.

The Biggest Prize Is Off the Table Without a Single Vote Being Cast

Yokohama was the city operators wanted most in the first round, with Genting Singapore and Melco among those chasing it before 2021. A second-round bid would need a mayor willing to start again from nothing: no operator, no plan, a public hearing process and an assembly vote, all inside roughly a year of an 18 October election. That would be hard even for an enthusiastic mayor. With the LDP-backed frontrunner having ruled it out the day she declared, the realistic conclusion is that Yokohama is out of the 2027 round whoever wins. The caveat is that Japanese IR policy has turned on single elections before, and a city that dropped its bid once could revisit it in a later round.

The Second Round Now Looks Like Aichi and Hokkaido, Not a Contest Between Cities

Without Yokohama, the plausible applicants are prefectures rather than big-city governments. Aichi is furthest along: it has a site, a public procurement process and a schedule that has operators submitting final proposals around six months before the national window opens. Hokkaido has a concept and interested municipalities but no decision, and a governor's election a month before applications open. That matters for operators. Two remaining licences and two or three serious candidates is not an auction, and with only Bally's and Galaxy publicly interested, the bargaining power may sit with the operators rather than the host regions.

Local Politics Remains the Binding Constraint

The national government has done what it can: Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi supports another round and the window is in law. What it cannot do is produce a willing local partner. Yokohama shows the pattern from the first round repeating, where a single mayoral election decided whether the most valuable site in the country existed as a bid at all. For operators, the lesson is unchanged: Japanese IR risk is local political risk, and the 2027 round will be decided in prefectural assemblies and governors' offices, not in Tokyo.

Japan has a window and a willing government. In Yokohama it no longer has a candidate city, and every candidate for mayor has said so.