Toyota Motor Corp. will spend 15 billion yen to construct an automobile amusement park on a fashionable man-made island in Tokyo Bay's waterfront district, company officials said Wednesday.
The main purpose of the park, to be named Mega Web, is to improve the popularity of Toyota cars with younger customers -- a major weakness in the No. 1 automaker's marketing operations.
The theme park will open in March and feature a museum on automobile history, an indoor roller coaster, driving simulators and a showroom containing all of the carmaker's current vehicles, which include more than 100 types, a Toyota official said.
Admission to most of the facilities will be free of charge, except for those where customers ride vehicles.
"The riding fees will cover only 10 to 20 percent of the all costs (for the project). It won't pay," said Kazuhiko Hayashi, one of Toyota's chief producers for the project. "The purpose is to attract the younger generations," he said.
The 24,000-sq.-meter site is a part of Palette Town, a new theme city developed jointly with other businesses on a block in the waterfront area.