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Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pushed casinos as a tourism revival for the country. His successor, PM Yoshihide Suga, is carrying on that mission. The National Diet is controlled by Abe and Suga’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The LDP also controls the Yokohama City Council. Hayashi is a member herself. Ota running on an anti-IR platform will determine just how opposed the public really is.<\/p>\n
“I have been consistent in my message that casinos cause problems and are not a good thing,” Ota declared. “I do not believe there is any other way to save Yokohama but to become mayor myself.”<\/p>\n
Mayoral Race<\/b><\/h2>\n
Hayashi has not yet announced whether she intends to run for another term. She’s held the office of mayor for more than a decade. The 2021 election is to be held in August.<\/p>\n
In Japan, city mayors are elected to four-year terms, and there are no term limits. Ota has been elected to the Yokohama City Council 11 times. Each term runs four years.<\/p>\n
Ota, now 75, became one of Yokohama’s 86 City Council members back in the late 1970s. He’s currently a member of the Constitutional Democratic Party but says he will run as an independent candidate against Hayashi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yokohama mayoral candidate Masataka Ota says he will challenge incumbent Mayor Fumiko Hayashi this summer. The longtime City Council member plans to woo over voters by running an opposition campaign to a potential integrated resort (IR) in Japan’s second most populated city. Yokohama Mayor Fumiko Hayashi reversed course recently, saying she would no longer respect […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":161791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69069,61],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Yokohama Mayoral Candidate Ota to Run on Anti-Casino Platform<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n