Japan Press Weekly

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2014 October 15 - 21 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

JCP Daimon in public meeting opposes legalization of casino operations

Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Councilors Daimon Mikishi on October 16 in a public meeting said that the need is for the government to enhance measures to deal with gambling addiction, not to legalize casino operations.

In the gathering hosted by a citizens’ group working on the gambling addiction issue, a panel discussion took place with parliamentarians from political parties, including the JCP, the Liberal Democratic Party, the Komei Party, the Japan Innovation Party, the People’s Life Party, the Democratic Party of Japan, and the Your Party. Among the panelists, only the JCP lawmaker objected to legalization of casino gambling.

Ozawa Sakihito, Japan Innovation Party Lower House member and a strong advocate of the legalization of casino business, explained how casinos would contribute to job creation.

Refuting Ozawa’s argument, Daimon said that casinos may create more ruined people than job opportunities by citing that in the United States, casino gambling is regarded as “predatory gambling”.

Daimon in conclusion stressed the need for efforts to further increase public awareness of the gambling addiction issue.

Other lawmakers presented the idea of establishing an organization to address the addiction issue by using profits from casinos (LDP) or emphasized the need to tackle pathological gambling while expressing the pro-casino position (People’s Life Party).


Past related articles:
> Lawyers hold rally to oppose bill to legalize casinos [October 5, 2014]
> Legalization of casinos will increase rate of gambling addiction in Japan [August 25, 2014]