Tokyo Disneyland
| Tokyo Disneyland | |
|---|---|
| Location | Tokyo Disney Resort, Urayasu, Chiba, Japan |
| Opened | April 15, 1983 |
| Area | 115 acres |
| Theme | Fairy tales, adventure and classic Disney storytelling |
| Owner | Oriental Land Company |
| Operator | Oriental Land Company |
| Status | Operating |
Tokyo Disneyland is a theme park at the Tokyo Disney Resort in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, on reclaimed land along Tokyo Bay east of Tokyo itself. It opened on April 15, 1983, and was the first Disney park built outside the United States. Unusually among Disney resorts, it is neither owned nor operated by The Walt Disney Company: the Oriental Land Company owns and runs the park under licence, paying royalties for the use of Disney characters, designs and advice, while Walt Disney Imagineering designed the park itself.
History
The Oriental Land Company, founded in 1960 to develop the Maihama district on newly reclaimed land, approached Disney about a Japanese park during the 1970s. Disney, then committed to the costly construction of EPCOT in Florida, declined to invest its own capital, and the two companies instead agreed in 1979 on a licensing arrangement under which Oriental Land financed, owned and operated the park. Construction cost roughly 180 billion yen, and the park opened on April 15, 1983, in cold, wet weather that kept the first day's attendance modest.
The arrangement proved profitable quickly; Oriental Land recovered its investment within a few years, and Tokyo Disneyland became a fixture of Japanese leisure life. A companion park, Tokyo DisneySea, opened next door on September 4, 2001, converting the site into a multi-day resort with hotels and a monorail loop, the Disney Resort Line. Major additions over the decades include Splash Mountain and Critter Country in 1992, Mickey's Toontown in 1996, and a large Fantasyland expansion built around Beauty and the Beast that opened in 2020 with the ride Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast.
Layout
The park covers about 115 acres and closely follows the plan of Magic Kingdom in Florida, with one conspicuous difference: its entrance street, equivalent to Main Street, U.S.A., is called World Bazaar and is roofed by a glass canopy, a concession to the local climate that shelters the street from rain and winter cold. Seven themed lands radiate from the hub in front of Cinderella Castle, a near-replica of the Florida castle: World Bazaar, Adventureland, Westernland — the park's version of Frontierland — Critter Country, Fantasyland, Mickey's Toontown and Tomorrowland.
Because the park opened with the Florida park as its template, several of its early attractions followed Magic Kingdom designs rather than California ones, although later additions have increasingly been developed for Tokyo first. The park is also known for attractions retained long after their removal elsewhere, and for entertainment, particularly its parades and seasonal events, that is refreshed on a cycle driven by a loyal repeat-visitor base.
Attendance
Together with Tokyo DisneySea, the park forms one of the most heavily attended resort destinations in the world; the two parks together have drawn around 25 to 30 million visits in strong recent years, and Tokyo Disneyland alone regularly ranks among the five most visited theme parks on earth.