MGM Resorts is looking over Tokyo's famed Tsukiji fish market as a site for a giant casino. The jokes, of course, are on the obvious side.

More than humor is at stake, though. Japan is betting on getting help from Las Vegas to boost tourism, jobs and tax revenue. Why, then, is it thinking of letting MGM and Las Vegas Sands chief Sheldon Adelson build them in places that are doing just fine without baccarat tables and roulette wheels?

Japan should be steering these gargantuan, multibillion-dollar projects to regions that really need them — like economically depressed Okinawa Island and Tohoku, the northeast region that still hasn't recovered from the March 2011 earthquake.