SINGAPORE — The government lacks the will to legalize casinos and let the industry compensate for declining tax revenue amid deflation, according to the head of pachinko maker Universal Entertainment Corp.
"In Japan, politicians are very weak in showing the will to do something," Kazuo Okada, 67, chairman of Universal Entertainment, said Wednesday in Singapore. "If a politician who displayed such a will were to emerge, the legislation would likely be passed at once."
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan hasn't taken up the topic of legalizing casinos since coming to power in September. The previous government led by the Liberal Democratic Party didn't submit a bill legalizing casinos partly because of the global financial crisis, said Paul Bromberg, chief operating officer of Spectrum OSO Asia Ltd.