NEWSWORTHY
35th anniversary helped pull in record crowds at Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea in fiscal 2018
Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea enjoyed a record number of visitors for the first time in four years in fiscal 2018, according to operator Oriental Land Co. The number for the year through March jumped 8.2 percent from the previous year to 32.55 million, supported ...
Moomins are settling in Saitama: Cuddly characters' first theme park in Japan to open March 16
An amusement park themed on the world of Finland's Moomin fairy-tale characters will open March 16 in Saitama Prefecture, near Tokyo, its operator said Tuesday. The 7.3-hectare Moominvalley Park — the first Moomin-themed amusement park in Japan — is located within Metsa Village, a Nordic-centric ...
One year on, Legoland Japan faces uphill battle to increase visitors
Legoland Japan is redoubling efforts to increase its visitor numbers, but just one year since its opening the theme park is facing an uphill battle. The outdoor theme park in the city of Nagoya opened with fanfare on April 1, 2017, mainly targeting families with ...
Tokyo Disneyland's new parade celebrating the theme park's 35th anniversary was unveiled to the media on Tuesday, with Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters dancing on gigantic floats. The parade, dubbed "Dreaming Up!" will officially premiere on Sunday. It is the first renewal of Tokyo ...
Will Japan ever join the great Easter egg hunt?
A year ago, J-pop star Kyary Pamyu Pamyu released a song with lyrics and a promotional video that were as saccharine as a chocolate bunny. The song was titled "Easta" — a play on Easter and "a good start" in Japanese — and the ...
Japan's theme parks get creative as they seek to attract visitors
From a television commercial that gives a humorous twist to a theme park's impending closure to hotels staffed by robots, tactics to capitalize on company outings, and ads featuring Japanese pop idols and actors — theme parks in Japan are squeezing their creative juices ...
The world's first indoor adventure park featuring "friends" characters created for Line Corp.'s immensely popular messaging app will open later this year in Bangkok. Line Village Bangkok says it will open a Line Village merchandise store Friday before fully opening its doors in the capital's ...
Ghibli theme park scheduled to open on former Aichi expo site in 2020s
Aichi Prefecture said Thursday it will build a theme park based on an anime by director Hayao Miyazaki with the aim of opening it in the early 2020s. In collaboration with Studio Ghibli Inc., based in the western Tokyo suburb of Koganei, the tentatively named ...
Dutch-themed park to offer sleeping capsules that drift to isle of attractions
Imagine what it's like to lie on a bed in a floating capsule and look into the stars while it drifts to a desert island overnight. That's the experience a major theme park in Nagasaki Prefecture plans to offer by the end of this ...
AKB48 spends summer vacation at USJ
Visitors to USJ will be able to see the AKB girls in the flesh from July 21 through Sept. 4, just in time for summer vacation for students.
The operator of Universal Studios Japan has canceled plans for a theme park in Okinawa, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said. He said USJ will instead focus investment on its existing USJ park in Osaka. The central government had earmarked ¥120 million in the fiscal ...
SeaWorld to stop breeding orcas, making them perform tricks
After years of pressure, SeaWorld made a surprise announcement: It no longer breeds killer whales in captivity and will soon stop making them leap from their pools or splash audiences on command. Surrendering Thursday to a profound shift in how people feel about using animals ...
