The owner of Tokyo Disneyland, Oriental Land Co., Ltd. has broken ground on a 75 billion yen ($637 million) Tokyo Disneyland development project creating brand new attractions at the park. This represents their largest single investment since the Grand Opening of Tokyo DisneySea Park back in 2001.
The Tokyo Disneyland development is due to complete and open in spring 2020.
Oriental Land Co., Ltd., which licenses the theme from the Disney company, officially launched the project at a groundbreaking ceremony on April 5th. This took place at the site proposed for the development of the new attractions. It was launched by the president and COO of Oriental Land Co., Ltd., Kyoichiro Uenishi, alongside Disney characters Mickey and Minnie Mouse.
Tokyo Disneyland Development Bets on the Beast
Featured in the new development will be some of Disney’s most popular characters. These will include a Beauty and the Beast Area (a working title) a live entertainment theater (name TBA) and in addition a brand new attraction themed around the Disney film Big Hero 6 (name TBA). There will also be a new Minnie Mouse greeting facility.
The announcement comes at a challenging time for the Japanese park. Tokyo Disneyland and its sister park Tokyo DisneySea experienced a fall in their attendance for the second year in a row. Admissions to both Disney parks fell by 0.6 percent to a just over 30 million.
This is in stark contrast to its competitor, Universal Studios Japan (USJ). Like the Disney parks, it celebrated its 15th anniversary last year. However, unlike the Disney parks, Universal Studios Japan is enjoying record attendance. The 14.6 million visitors last year marked an increase of 700,000 on the year before and a third year consecutive year of growth.
All images copyright Disney.
