Galaxy Entertainment Group (GEG) has been actively supporting cultural and artistic exchanges between China and Portuguese-speaking countries, and advancing the establishment of Macau as “a base for exchange and cooperation where Chinese culture is the mainstream and diverse cultures coexist”. Spanning over 30 activities from April 4 to May 6, the “Galaxy Entertainment Group Presents: Literary and Cultural Festival for Parents and Children ‘Alphabet & Friends’ 2025” (the Festival) was jointly organised by the Portuguese Institute of the Orient (IPOR) and the Consulate-General of Portugal in Macau and Hong Kong and title-sponsored by GEG. As part of the Festival, GEG hosted an exclusive parent-child story creation session at the Galaxy Kidz Edutainment Centre, inviting over 30 local children and parents from the Associação Promotora da Instrução dos Macaenses to participate. Together, they created and read Portuguese-language stories, deepening their understanding and interest in Portuguese culture through relaxed and interesting interactions. Since its inception in 2021, GEG has supported the Festival for five consecutive years, facilitating cultural exchanges within Macau’s Chinese-Portuguese community. Including this year’s activities, the Festival has drawn participation from 40 local schools and institutions, totaling over 10,000 participants.

During the parent-child story creation session at the Galaxy Kidz Edutainment Centre, Ms. Catarina Mesquita, founder of Macau’s first trilingual children’s book publishing company, Mandarina Books, inspired the creativity of children in an educational and entertaining way, guiding them to use different Portuguese phrases and vocabularies to create unique stories based on everyday life. Portuguese cartoonist, Mr. Rodrigo de Matos, also attended the event and vividly illustrated the children’s ingenious ideas on canvas. The children and their parents added colorful stickers to their works afterwards in a warm and lively atmosphere. Additionally, Ms. Mesquita brought her books, published in Chinese, English and Portuguese, for the participating families to read together, allowing them to experience the joy of cross-cultural communication.

Mr. Mário Herculano Fernandes Estorninho, a representative from the Associação Promotora da Instrução dos Macaenses, said: “We sincerely thank GEG and all the organizers for providing this rich cultural experience. The event not only sparked children’s creativity and imagination through engaging activities, but also fostered their interest in storytelling, improved their expression and comprehension skills in the Portuguese language, and deepened their understanding of Portuguese culture.”

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For the first time, the series of activities in this year’s Festival were the “reading points” of the “Reading Month in the City of Macao 2025” organised by the Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Macau SAR Government (ICM). The Festival was linked to a number of related initiatives, such as International Children’s Book Day, World Book Day and World Portuguese Language Day, with various activities ranging from concerts, theater performances, parent-child workshops, children’s book fairs and book launches around the theme of “Artificial Intelligence in Education – The Robot and I” held to the enthusiastic response of different sectors. Furthermore, at the “Mini Library”, one of the key events of the Festival, IPOR, the Consulate-General of Portugal in Macau and Hong Kong and GEG jointly donated a collection of nearly 400 books by Portuguese-language authors, including some bilingual editions released during the Festival, to nearly 40 non-tertiary local schools that include Portuguese in their curriculum in hopes of enhancing local youth’s interest in reading and deepening their understanding of the Portuguese culture through high-quality bilingual learning materials.

Over the years, GEG has upheld its philosophy of “What is taken from the community is to be used for the good of the community” by supporting Chinese-Portuguese cultural and artistic events in Macau through diverse ways, hoping to enrich the city’s multicultural landscape. In this March, GEG sponsored the Macau Literary Festival for the 11th time, providing a platform for literary exchange between cultural and artistic advocates from China and Portuguese-speaking countries. Last year, GEG supported the “GEG Lusofonia Festival” for the second consecutive year, serving as one of its organisers for the first time alongside ICM. Since 2021, GEG has partnered with ICM to launch a variety of initiatives under the “Encounter in Macao – Arts and Cultural Festival between China and the Portuguese-speaking Countries”, including supporting the “GEG Traditional Music and Dance Performance in the Community” held at Galaxy Macau integrated resort for two consecutive years. Additionally, GEG has supported the “China and Portuguese-speaking Countries Film Festival” for four consecutive years, co-hosting it twice and providing outdoor screenings at GEG’s revitalisation project – the Lai Chi Vun Shipyards during this past edition.

Japanese authorities are planning to reopen the application process for integrated resort (IR) developments that include casinos, with the goal of approving up to two additional projects by the end of 2027.

This move would bring the country closer to the maximum of three IR licenses permitted under current legislation.

According to a reports, Japan’s central government is expected to launch the new round of applications by December 2026, giving potential host locations time to develop their IR District Development Plans—a mandatory requirement under the national framework.

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While Hokkaido withdrew from the original round of bids in 2019, the northern island’s capital city, Sapporo, has now shown a revived interest in pursuing an IR project. Tokyo has also emerged as a possible candidate, although the capital has yet to make a formal declaration of intent. Interest in the initiative has been spurred by various feasibility studies conducted in recent years, suggesting a growing openness to participation from Japan’s largest urban centre.

To proceed with the updated initiative, the Japanese government plans to solicit public feedback on a proposed cabinet order outlining the application schedule. This consultation period is set to begin in August 2025 and will run through the end of the year, following the House of Councillors election in July.

Currently, Japan has granted only one IR license. The sole approved project, MGM Osaka, is being developed by MGM Resorts International in partnership with Japanese financial group Orix Corp. It is scheduled to open in 2030 and stands as the flagship example of Japan’s ambitions to leverage IRs as a means of boosting tourism and economic growth.

The country’s IR framework, enshrined in law, allows for a total of three resort licenses nationwide. With MGM Osaka already occupying one of those slots, the upcoming application window will determine which two regions—if any—will secure the remaining approvals.