
Japan has opened its doors to the global casino industry via pro-casino legislation the nation’s parliament passed last year. Even so, international casino companies looking to do business in the land of the rising sun are not exactly out of the woods yet. While the biggest hurdle, a political environment that might have been potentially hostile to the casino industry has been cleared, there are still more obstacles for companies that are interested in becoming players in Japan’s nascent gambling industry to overcome. One of those obstacles is the perception of gambling and casinos themselves in Japanese society.
There is a reason that Las Vegas, America’s casino capital, is known as Sin City. Even though America has puritan roots Las Vegas has been able to successfully brand itself as a place where people can indulge in vices, excess and gambling without Las Vegas’s casino industry necessarily carrying the stigma of those things. Many people in the United States, whether they are proponents of gambling or not, look forward to going to Las Vegas and seeing the flashing lights, the beautiful hotels even though the city is in close proximity to one of the few places in the United States where prostitution is actually legal.
There is a reason that Las Vegas, America’s casino capital, is known as Sin City. Even though America has puritan roots Las Vegas has been able to successfully brand itself as a place where people can indulge in vices, excess and gambling without Las Vegas’s casino industry necessarily carrying the stigma of those things. Many people in the United States, whether they are proponents of gambling or not, look forward to going to Las Vegas and seeing the flashing lights, the beautiful hotels even though the city is in close proximity to one of the few places in the United States where prostitution is actually legal.
It seems that global corporations that are interested in becoming players in Japan’s casino industry will have to manage a similar feat of selling gambling and casinos to a populace that, according to reports, largely view them as being hot spots where illegal activities often take place. It seems as though the public image of casinos and resorts must be transformed in Japan but according to experts, even more groundwork needs to be laid by these companies if they want to win over Japanese consumers. The sentiment that seems to exist is that casinos will likely detract from rather than add positive things to Japan.
There are very valid apprehensions about the possibility of people becoming addicted to gambling and the way that this would impact Japanese society. One publication pointed out that there have been high profile instances of the downsides of gambling in the East Asian region such as the impact that gambling has had in places like Macau and in South Korea including reports of South Korean nationals that have become homeless after developing gambling addictions. Experts are pointing out that casinos that want to do business in Japan will have to prove that they intend to be a force for good in Japan and that they take the potentially negative impact that gambling can have on people seriously.
There are many reasons why a non-Japanese casino operator would be eager to do business in Japan. The potential size of the island nation’s casino industry has been projected to be as large as $25 billion after all. But now that the legal barriers have been lowered it’s possible that the reality is setting in for companies that want to claim part of that $25 billion pie that doing so will not be an easy feat. It seems as though companies cannot simply barge into Japan and set up shop the way that they have in their home countries and expect to be successful there. Experts on the issue have suggested that before companies can even fathom setting up shop they first have to prove themselves to Japanese consumers.