New theme park in Japan’s Okinawa aims to tap tourism boom, become springboard to Asian markets

TOKYO – The company behind a new nature adventure park on Japan’s southern island of Okinawa is hoping the country’s huge tourism boom will get it off to a roaring start and, with time, propel the start-up further into Asia and other markets.

Junglia, a 60ha site built on an old golf course, features more than 20 attractions such as a hot-air balloon ride, buggy rides and a “Dinosaur Safari”. It is set to open on July 25. 

Costing some 70 billion yen (S$627 million), the park is the brainchild of Mr Tsuyoshi Morioka, chief executive of entertainment firm Katana.

The theme park veteran is credited with turning around flagging attendance at Universal Studios Japan (USJ) in Osaka by bringing in Harry Potter-themed attractions.

Japan is experiencing an unprecedented boom in tourism, fuelled by a weaker yen, with overseas visitors reaching a record 36.9 million in 2024.

Their spending totalled 8.1 trillion yen, making tourism – which counts as an export in gross domestic product data – the country's second-biggest export sector after cars.

The Japanese also love a good theme park, with Tokyo’s Disney resorts having found enduring success and USJ, despite some early financial woes, proving popular. That said, many parks have also failed.

Mr Yu Shioji, chairman of the Amusement Park Society of Japan, believes Junglia will have “almost no chance” of long-term success, as there are other nature adventure parks in Japan and it is relatively expensive. A day pass costs 6,930 yen for locals and 8,800 yen for foreigners.

While acknowledging long odds for long-term profitability for any amusement park, Mr Morioka says Junglia has a more than 70 per cent chance of success.

He expects several thousand visitors a day to Junglia, and adds that it can be profitable even if it garners only half the number of visitors of the nearby Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium, which has around three million a year.

Mr Morioka says demand for theme parks and higher value-added tourism services in Japan are here to stay, given that many Asian countries are growing wealthier.

“The weak yen is a tailwind, but the number of people who want to visit Japan will increase structurally regardless of the currency effect.”

The Japanese government has said it wants to boost the number of overseas visitors to 60 million a year by 2030.

If Junglia is successful, Mr Morioka says developing smaller attractions that cost less than 100 billion yen, unlike mega theme parks such as Disney’s and USJ, could be easily replicated in other Asian markets such as Taiwan and Indonesia.

Listing Katana would be an option to fund future growth, he says, adding that he sees a lot of potential for theme parks built around Japanese anime if he can convince content creators to license their intellectual property.

“It would be good if there was a third option in cities around the globe after Disney and Universal Studios,” says Mr Morioka. “I want to develop niches where they can’t go, and create a third force in attractions in the world that originates from Japan.” REUTERS