In Japan, a group of business leaders from rural Fukui Prefecture has reportedly become the latest to launch a bid for the right to host one of up to six new integrated casino resorts due to be legalized following the passage of the nation’s Integrated Resort Implementation Bill.

According to a recent report from Asia Gaming Brief, the Fukui Association of Corporate Executives has suggested that a 247-acre site near Echizen City be given permission to feature an integrated casino resort. The proposal, however, is reportedly due to face stiff competition from other larger candidate communities such as Osaka, Tokyo and the Hokkaido city of Tomakomai.

The location put forward for the proposed Fukui Prefecture integrated casino resort is reportedly adjacent to the tentatively-named Nanetsu train station that is being built as part of an extension to the high-speed Hokuriku Shinkansen railway line. This transportation project is scheduled to open in 2023 and will run from the northern city of Kanazawa through Echizen City before finishing in the former Imperial capital, Kyoto.

“This proposal exceeds what our city can accomplish on its own so I look forward to tying up with all of Fukui Prefecture and indeed all of Hokuriku region,” reportedly read a statement from Echizen City mayor Toshiaki Nara after receiving the proposal from the Fukui Association of Corporate Executives.

Asia Gaming Brief reported that the planned Echizen City development would hope to utilize its close proximity to the coming high-speed rail line to attract visitors from all over Fukui Prefecture and its neighboring Gifu Prefecture. However, these areas only have a combined population of slightly more than 2.8 million, which would almost certainly mean that the planned integrated casino resort would endeavor to entice customers from further afield such as from Kanazawa or the much larger Kyoto.

Masahiro Hayashi from the Fukui Association of Corporate Executives reportedly declared that his group had examined other sites for its integrated casino resort proposal but that the Echizen City location was the best ‘from the point of view of economic efficacy’. Also the President of Fukui Bank, the executive moreover detailed that the development could one day feature a new university directly next to the coming train station.