Located in Tokyo, Japan, Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea feature many Disney attractions, but ownership lies elsewhere.

Origins

In the 1970s, a Japanese company, Oriental Land Co. (OLC), explored European and American leisure facilities. This led them to create their own theme park, “Oriental Land.” They decided that Disney would be an ideal model to base their park on.

After several meetings and tours, Disney and OLC reached an agreement for a partnership. Disney granted OLC the rights to construct the park using the Disney name, but Disney does not own the parks. OLC went on to create Tokyo Disneyland in 1983 and Tokyo DisneySea in 2001.

The Experience

Since the Tokyo parks are not owned by Disney, there are noticeable differences between them and Disney-owned parks. LVA’s Japanese teacher, Miss Ann Jeffery, shared her experience with the Country Bear Jamboree ride.

“The thing that caught my attention most obviously was that most of the stuff was in Japanese, one of the ones that stands out in my mind is the country bear jamboree, where the bears are talking and they’re using a southern drawl. One of the bears, he talks at a fast pace,” said Jeffery.

Jeffery said, “I’m thinking whoever was trying to translate got frustrated because it was a southern drawl fast. I could understand it, no problem, but the fact that it was still in English, when all of the other parts had been translated to Japanese was really funny to me.”

Does it really matter? 

Despite Tokyo Disney being owned by OLC, guests still enjoy their experience.

Jeffery describes the atmosphere as “Very clean, and it was a lot of fun.” She also mentions, “It was a lot of fun: I got to go twice. I was there with my students one time and my friends another time. We got to go on a lot of different rides.”

Despite its independent ownership, Tokyo Disney continues to enchant visitors from around the world, maintaining the magic of Disney in a unique cultural setting.