Japan

Japan's integrated-resort market structure remains anchored by a single approved licence, MGM Resorts' Osaka IR at Yumeshima, with two of the three statutory licences contemplated under the IR framework still unallocated. The standing legal foundation for gambling-dependency policy is the Gambling Dependency Countermeasures Basic Act (Act No. 74 of 2018), durable primary legislation that defines "gambling etc." as public sporting competitions, pachinko-parlour-related games, and other games of chance conducted pursuant to law. The dominant development this cycle is not on the land-based IR side but on the online-gambling side: an amendment to that Basic Act, effective 25 September 2025, independently criminalises the presentation and inducement of illegal online-gambling websites, materially tightening the enforcement environment even as the underlying IR licensing structure remains stable.

A Cabinet Order dated 10 March 2026, issued under the IR District Development Act, opened a second IR casino licensing round, with an application window running from 6 May 2026 to 5 November 2027, for up to two further casino licenses. This is a confirmed, dated liberalising instrument that expands the licensing framework beyond the single existing licensed integrated resort. Separately, the Japan Casino Regulatory Commission's supplier and manufacturer licensing category has become operationally active, with Konami Gaming Inc. becoming the first company to submit license applications across all applicable categories to the JCRC, on 8 July 2026. Together these developments confirm that both the operator-side and supplier-side licensing pathways under the IR District Development Act framework are now functioning in administrative practice, not merely established in statute.

Online gambling: entry is not possible; criminal prohibition applies to operators and their Japan-based personnel, and the September 2025 amendment reaches offshore operators presenting sites to JP residents. IR casino: entry requires an extraordinarily long-term investment (10+ years application-to-opening), partnership with Japanese entities, billions of USD in capital, and high political/reputational risk. The only near-term commercial opportunity is as a CMC-certified B2B equipment supplier to an IR operator. For mainstream online operators, Japan is a watch-and-wait jurisdiction.

Online gambling: all Japanese domestic payment methods are targeted for blocking. The NPA, FSA and METI collaborate to suppress remittances and card payments to online casinos, with METI engaging international card schemes and issuers to remove operators from the payment network. The June 2025 Payment Services Act amendment updated crypto-asset, stablecoin and fund-transfer-service rules (effective within one year). Offshore operators cannot legally process JPY payments for online gambling to Japanese residents. IR casino payments will operate within a strict AML/CFT framework under the Act on Prevention of Transfer of Criminal Proceeds.

Marketing of online gambling to Japanese residents is illegal. The September 2025 amendment to the Anti-Gambling Addiction Act explicitly bans the posting of online ads for illegal online casinos, including on social media, and bans the launch of new online casinos including smartphone apps. Japanese advertising-industry guidelines already required members to refrain from advertising offshore online gambling to JP residents. IR casino advertising will be tightly restricted under the IR framework, with no advertising permitted near schools or welfare facilities. Pachinko marketing is subject to industry self-regulation. No affiliate marketing of online gambling is legally permissible.

The 2025 amendment to the Gambling Dependency Countermeasures Basic Act, effective 25 September 2025, gives police the power to request that platforms and internet service providers take down content that presents or induces use of illegal online-gambling websites. This extends Japan's enforcement reach directly into distribution infrastructure, targeting the channels, such as social-media posts, affiliate links, and aggregator sites, through which offshore online-casino operators reach Japanese users, rather than only the underlying gambling platform. The power is statutorily grounded but operates as an administrative request mechanism, and no dedicated enforcement-events register was located this cycle to show how frequently or against whom it has been exercised.

The material enforcement development this cycle is the 25 September 2025 entry into force of an amendment to the Gambling Dependency Countermeasures Basic Act, which makes presentation or introduction of illegal online-gambling websites, and internet-based inducement of unspecified persons toward such gambling, independently unlawful, separate from the wagering offence itself. This is confirmed, durable statutory law, corroborated by a Tokyo Metropolitan Government notice and Nikkei's coverage of the 18 June 2025 Diet vote. Alongside the new offence, national and local government, including the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and the National Police Agency, have been given public-awareness duties, and police have been empowered to request takedown of qualifying content from platforms and internet service providers; this implementing power is fragile, resting on administrative direction rather than statute, and is revocable by future guidance change. No dedicated JCRC enforcement-events register was located this cycle, so the practical cadence of takedown requests and prosecutions under the new offence cannot yet be evidenced directly, only the statutory grant of the power itself.

Direction: slow IR-only liberalisation. A second licensing round is in preparation — a cabinet-order public-comment period ran August–December 2025, with an application window targeted for ~2026–2027; Hokkaido, Nagasaki, Tokyo and Yokosuka have signalled interest, and the government retains authority for up to two further IRs. Online gambling remains firmly prohibited with the regime tightening (September 2025 amendment). The Osaka IR targets an Autumn 2030 opening. Japan is a long-term monitoring jurisdiction for online operators, not a near-term entry opportunity.