The coronavirus won’t affect the timetable for Japan’s integrated resort (IR) process. Several analysts expect cities will push ahead with their application processes.

Explained Brendan Bussmann, a partner at casino industry consultancy Global Market Advisors LLC and its director of government affairs, while the coronavirus had limited the ability to host some of the public forums, the suitor-cities were simply not “letting their timeline slip as they seek to find the right operators to develop an IR in their region.”

The government has been trying to do everything possible to stick to the timeline. Even amid an alleged bribery scandal, there was still a push to stick to the timetable that would give local governments between January of this year to July of next year to apply for the right to host one of these resort-casinos.

However, the recent coronavirus had seemed to soften that deadline. With over 1500 cases reported in the country, many were fearing that this virus could have nearly as dramatic of an impact as the Fukushima disaster, which occurred in March 2011 and cost more than 18,000 lives.