Japan Press Weekly

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2011 December 7 - 13 [POLITICS]

Construction of casinos in disaster-hit region is impermissible: JCP Daimon

Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Councilors Daimon Mikishi on December 6 in a House Budget Committee meeting urged the government to not allow a plan to construct a casino in the disaster-hit region under the guise of post-disaster reconstruction.

The plan is promoted by a Dietmembers’ league calling for the opening of casinos, and is made up of members of the Democratic, the Liberal Democratic and the Komei parties. The head of the league is DPJ member Koga Issei who chairs the Lower House special committee on post-disaster reconstruction.

Natori City in Miyagi Prefecture is the location targeted for the controversial casino plan.

Daimon said that people in the pachinko industry are approaching disaster-hit landowners in the city with the idea that the construction of a casino will provide a chance to get a good price for their land. He said that local residents are expressing opposition to the plan by saying, “The pachinko industry approach is ugly because they are taking advantage of disaster victims’ hardships. It is impermissible to exploit areas affected by the quake and tsunami to make profits from gambling.”

“Building gambling casinos in disaster-devastated areas is tantamount to insulting the people who are struggling to recover from the disaster. What the government should do is to help disaster victims in rebuilding their businesses and livelihoods, not to establish gambling venues,” said Daimon.

Prime Minister Noda Yoshihiko in his reply said, “The need now for the government is to make the utmost effort to restore people’s lives devastated on March 11.”

Daimon pointed out that in order to push ahead with the casino plan, the parliamentarians’ league plans to submit a bill to legalize gambling in the present extraordinary Diet session. He also revealed that with the expectation that legalization of gambling will lead to more profits through gambling machine sales and betting-parlor operations, the pachinko industry is giving political donations to the DPJ and purchasing DPJ lawmakers’ fund-raising party tickets.

The pachinko industry is the leading amusement industry in Japan involving gambling. In Japan, cash in gambling is illegal, so pachinko parlors are operated under strict regulations.

Daimon said, “With the aim of facilitating the decriminalization of gambling, the industry is putting legislators in a ‘political advisor’ position. Five ministers of the Noda Cabinet were in this position but four of them quit following my questioning in October. However, National Strategy Minister Furukawa Motohisa still remains in an advisor position.”

Furukawa replied, “I resigned as advisor on December 1.”

Stressing that betting invites crimes and allows organized crime syndicates and gangsters to enter into it in full force, Daimon said, “It is hard to maintain a healthy environment in relation to gambling. Lawmakers calling for the legalization of gambling should give up on their attempt to submit the bill to the Diet.”