No.1370 World Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai and the IR Project
Approximately seven months of time is left before the scheduled opening of the Expo 2025. The construction job for facilities is going in rush. One more construction work will go simultaneously in a full scale at the bordering site, which is for the IR=Integrated Resort development project with its start planned in the year 2030. Both of the two plans have troubles in their preparatory stages.
NO FRESH PUBLIC FUND BE SPENT ON LUXURIOUS PLANS
Yumeshima, located in the Osaka-Kansai area, is the site for both of the World Expo and the IR project. It is a reclaimed island filled with burnt garbage ashes, earth and sand. Critics say the man-made islet faces dangers of ground subsidence and liquefaction. Last March 28 exploded methane gas at the Expo construction site, which again tells us pertinent risks.
As for the Osaka IR project, a company, Osaka IR KK, composed of a branch office in Japan of a US firm, MGM Resorts International, and ORIX Corporation, is in charge of the plan.
Construction job amid Expo
The Osaka local government and the running company concluded an agreement September 28, 2023, on the operational arrangements, including a concrete inaugural plan. The accord has a clause on the right of rescission, which stipulates that the private firm is allowed to revoke it (before September 2026) without paying penalty charge when an excess in spending is anticipated in terms of the initial investment amount of approximately 1.27 trillion yen.
Osaka IR KK will start a construction job, as it has presented an environmental impact assessment report and a follow-up planning document to the Osaka prefectural government to complete the procedures required for the evaluation. Their construction work for facilities will begin around spring of 2025 and end in summer of 2030.
Evidently, however, the timing of the IR KK’s construction job overlaps the events of Expo. The latter’s secretariat requested the Osaka government to suspend the construction job during the Expo because of noises and general landscape.
According to media reports, at the moment, negotiation for the suspension is not successful. Governor of Osaka Yoshimura Hirofumi tells explicitly that ‘the IR project should be proceeded as scheduled’, saying that the IR project will ‘certainly locomote economic activities in the region’.
Public fund is allocated to IR project, too
The IR development plan in Osaka, following enactment of the IR Promotion Act, was launched in 2017 by ‘the appraisal committee’, which consists of representatives from Osaka Prefecture, Osaka City and the Kansai economic federation; the committee had been engaged in ‘the city development initiative for Yumeshima’ to attract foreign tourists with a pivot on the IR project, making the area an international center.
Under these circumstances, the then-Suga administration and the Osaka-Ishin Party strenuously worked to designate the Yumeshima as a candidate site for World Expo, combining with the IR plan.
At the initial moment the Ishin party had boldly told that no public money would be spent on the IR projects. It was because, under the pretext of hosting Expo, top leaders of Osaka Prefecture and Osaka City, who are from the Ishin party, had tangible estimates for the IR development plan, including inviting casinos. For instance, a soil stabilization work; if it is for the IR development project, business operators owe the costs, but for Expo, public funds are available.
Today we witness in Yumeshima consequences of the predicted risks and the irresponsible planning. If a construction job for the IR is suspended, compensation money must be paid from public funds. People cannot reap the harvest of mistakes made by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, the Ishin and the federation of business entities.
大阪・関西万博の開幕まで約７カ月。夢洲では、施設の建設が突貫工事で進む。隣のカジノを含む統合型リゾート（ＩＲ）予定地でも30年開業へ工事が本格化するが、こちらでも赤信号が灯る。
万博会場・ＩＲ予定地の夢洲は、ごみ焼却灰や土砂で造成された埋立て地で、地盤沈下や液状化が指摘されていた。３月28日には、万博会場の工事現場でメタンガス爆発事故が起き、リスクが改めて明らかになった。
大阪ＩＲは、米ＭＧＭリゾーツ・インターナショナル日本法人とオリックスなどで作る「大阪ＩＲ株式会社」が担う。
万博中のＩＲ工事
府と運営事業者は23年９月28日、開業の具体的な計画などを定めた実施協定を締結しているが、協定には初期投資額と設定された約１兆２７００億円が、上振れなどが見込まれた場合、事業者側が違約金なしで同協定を破棄できる解除権（26年９月まで）が盛り込まれている。
ＩＲは、夢洲の環境影響評価書と事後調査計画書を大阪市に提出し、環境アセスメントの手続きを完了し、近く着工、施設本体の建設は25年春頃に開始し、30年夏頃に終える予定となっている。
ところがＩＲ施設の着工時期と、万博の開催時期が重なることから、万博事務局は工事の騒音や景観への影響から会期中の工事中断を大阪府に求めていることが明らかになった。
報道によると工事中断の調整は現時点で不調とのことだが、吉村洋文知事は、ＩＲについて「大きな経済の起爆剤になる」とし、「（事業を）予定通り進めていきたい」と表明している。
ＩＲ整備にも公費
大阪ＩＲはＩＲ推進法成立を受けて17年、大阪府・市と関西経済界でつくる「検討会」が、ＩＲを核とした国際観光拠点をめざす「夢洲まちづくり構想」の策定に始まる。
こうした動きと連動するように、夢洲を候補地として万博誘致が当時の菅政権と大阪維新によって強引に進められた。
維新は、ＩＲに公費負担はないとぶち上げていたが、それは、維新の大阪府・市には万博を名目に夢洲の基盤を整備し、その先にカジノを含んだＩＲ開業が見えていたからだ。
ＩＲ関連の地盤整備は事業者負担だが、万博名目のインフラ整備なら公費が使える。しかし、夢洲リスク、ずさんな計画のツケが現出した。ＩＲ工事の中断による補償など新たな国費負担も浮上している。自民・維新・財界の尻拭いはゴメンだ。
英訳版↓
No.1370 World Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai and the IR Project
Approximately seven months of time is left before the scheduled opening of the Expo 2025. The construction job for facilities is going in rush. One more construction work will go simultaneously in a full scale at the bordering site, which is for the IR=Integrated Resort development project with its start planned in the year 2030. Both of the two plans have troubles in their preparatory stages.
NO FRESH PUBLIC FUND BE SPENT ON LUXURIOUS PLANS
Yumeshima, located in the Osaka-Kansai area, is the site for both of the World Expo and the IR project. It is a reclaimed island filled with burnt garbage ashes, earth and sand. Critics say the man-made islet faces dangers of ground subsidence and liquefaction. Last March 28 exploded methane gas at the Expo construction site, which again tells us pertinent risks.
As for the Osaka IR project, a company, Osaka IR KK, composed of a branch office in Japan of a US firm, MGM Resorts International, and ORIX Corporation, is in charge of the plan.
Construction job amid Expo
The Osaka local government and the running company concluded an agreement September 28, 2023, on the operational arrangements, including a concrete inaugural plan. The accord has a clause on the right of rescission, which stipulates that the private firm is allowed to revoke it (before September 2026) without paying penalty charge when an excess in spending is anticipated in terms of the initial investment amount of approximately 1.27 trillion yen.
Osaka IR KK will start a construction job, as it has presented an environmental impact assessment report and a follow-up planning document to the Osaka prefectural government to complete the procedures required for the evaluation. Their construction work for facilities will begin around spring of 2025 and end in summer of 2030.
Evidently, however, the timing of the IR KK’s construction job overlaps the events of Expo. The latter’s secretariat requested the Osaka government to suspend the construction job during the Expo because of noises and general landscape.
According to media reports, at the moment, negotiation for the suspension is not successful. Governor of Osaka Yoshimura Hirofumi tells explicitly that ‘the IR project should be proceeded as scheduled’, saying that the IR project will ‘certainly locomote economic activities in the region’.
Public fund is allocated to IR project, too
The IR development plan in Osaka, following enactment of the IR Promotion Act, was launched in 2017 by ‘the appraisal committee’, which consists of representatives from Osaka Prefecture, Osaka City and the Kansai economic federation; the committee had been engaged in ‘the city development initiative for Yumeshima’ to attract foreign tourists with a pivot on the IR project, making the area an international center.
Under these circumstances, the then-Suga administration and the Osaka-Ishin Party strenuously worked to designate the Yumeshima as a candidate site for World Expo, combining with the IR plan.
At the initial moment the Ishin party had boldly told that no public money would be spent on the IR projects. It was because, under the pretext of hosting Expo, top leaders of Osaka Prefecture and Osaka City, who are from the Ishin party, had tangible estimates for the IR development plan, including inviting casinos. For instance, a soil stabilization work; if it is for the IR development project, business operators owe the costs, but for Expo, public funds are available.
Today we witness in Yumeshima consequences of the predicted risks and the irresponsible planning. If a construction job for the IR is suspended, compensation money must be paid from public funds. People cannot reap the harvest of mistakes made by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, the Ishin and the federation of business entities.
September 11, 2024