Spotlight: Japan's ruling bloc steamrolls controversial casino bill through upper house amid growing social concerns

Japan's ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe successfully passed a controversial bill to legalize casino gambling in Japan in the upper house of parliament on Wednesday, despite last-ditch attempts by opposition parties.

The ruling coalition shot down by majority the attempts by the opposition camp, including the main opposition Democratic Party, Japanese Communist Party, Liberal Party and Social Democratic Party, to stall the bill, agreeing to submit a no-confidence motion against Abe's cabinet in the lower house earlier in the day.

Were the motion successful, as per the Constitution, the whole Cabinet would have to resign or the lower house be dissolved and a snap election called.

Separately, the Democratic Party submitted a censure motion against the prime minister in the upper house.

The party leader Renho said that the casino bill threatens the "dignity of the legislature".

The bill initially cleared the lower house on Dec. 6 amid calls from the opposition collectively that it had been forced thorough by the ruling bloc.

Democratic Party Diet Affairs Chairman Kazunori Yamanoi said that the passing of the bill would not be accepted by the public.

"The public absolutely cannot understand how a bill allowing casinos could be voted on after just six hours of deliberation," he said.

The secretaries general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior coalition ally Komeito party met Wednesday morning, however, to discuss the possibility of prolonging the already extended Diet session by two more days.

The ruling coalition's majority to deal with a no-confidence motion against the Cabinet, plus the prime minister's scheduled meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin here on Thursday and Friday, were thought to be enough to move ahead with the bill's rapid passage, observers said Wednesday.

Some members of Komeito had, in fact, previously voted against the bill in the more powerful lower house on concerns that the casinos could potentially lead to increased instances of gambling addiction and could create opportunities for nefarious groups and organized crime syndicates to operate in the shadows of the casinos.

Acting secretary general Shigeyuki Tomita stated that the bill could, "clear a path to privatized gambling," and questioned its financial benefits. "I question whether it will really benefit the economy," Tomita said.

But the ruling camp led by Abe believes the legislation will help enhance revenue from tourism by allowing integrated resort (IR) facilities, some of which may have shopping malls, large conference halls and other entertainment facilities located in the same establishments as the casinos.

Under Japanese law casinos are currently banned, but gambling in other forms is permitted such as at pachinko parlors, by way of a payout loophole, and on horse racing and motorboat races.

National lotteries, and "toto" betting (football pools) are also permitted under special legal provisions.

Abe's ruling bloc believes the scrapping of the current law and the opening of new casinos will be capable of generating revenue well beyond the uptick expected from tourism related to the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics in 2020, although political end economy watchers close to the matter said that it would be highly unlikely that any casinos would be operational before the Olympics.

Some analysts believe the integrated resorts could generate revenue of up to 30 billion U.S. dollars, rivaling gambling meccas like Las Vegas and Macau, and could be the kind of "shot in the arm" Japan desperately needs economically.

The road ahead for the casinos, henceforth, will be less than smooth, observers attest, with further related bills needing to be ratified against decades of political and social opposition that saw the bills finally shut down by the opposition in 2013, albeit not permanently.

The ruling coalition itself has found little public support for the casinos, with a survey taken by Japan's public broadcaster NHK last week revealing that a mere 12 percent of respondents were in favor of scrapping the current ban on casinos, while 44 percent were opposed.

The rest, according to NHK, were undecided, with the figures underscoring the opposition camp's claims of "steamrolling" by the ruling bloc.

Noriko Tanaka, president of the Society Concerned About the Gambling Addiction, a Tokyo-based nonprofit group, currently informed both society and the government of the potential dangers.

"Politicians claim they are concerned about a rise in gambling addicts. But the current bill is insufficient in resolving those problems and needs to be revised," Tanaka, whose group has conducted nationwide seminars and advised political parties on the matter, said recently.

"The Diet needs to have a discussion about a robust campaign to prevent gambling addiction," Tanaka said, with reference to the nation's more than 5 million gambling addicts, and rising incidents of gambling-related crime. Enditem