People dressed up like zombies take part in a Halloween event Saturday at Universal Studios Japan in the city of Osaka. | KYODO

Business / Corporate

USJ drew record number of visitors in October

Kyodo

OSAKA – The Universal Studios Japan theme park in Osaka had its best month ever in October, drawing around 1.75 million visitors as Halloween events attracted a large number of non-Japanese and families.

The figure surpassed the previous record of approximately 1.46 million posted in October of last year, operator USJ Co. said Monday.

“According to our analysis, we drew the highest number of visitors among theme parks in Japan in October, exceeding the figure for Tokyo Disneyland,” USJ executive Tsuyoshi Morioka told a news conference.

The count was boosted by the continued popularity of the Harry Potter attraction that opened in July 2014 and Universal Wonderland, which was renovated in March to attract children and parents.

If the number of visitors increases at this pace, the total figure in fiscal 2015 is expected to top the record of 12.7 million recorded in fiscal 2014.

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