TOKYO • Leading American film-making company Warner Bros Entertainment plans to open a Harry Potter theme park in Tokyo by the spring of 2023, according to Japanese media.
Warner Bros plans to construct the park on part of the land that is currently occupied by the soon-to-be-closed Toshimaen Amusement Park in Tokyo.
Warner Bros will lease part of the about 20ha plot of land, which is owned by Seibu Group, while the Tokyo metropolitan government will buy the rest of the land from Seibu to develop a park.
The existing amusement facilities and swimming pools of Toshimaen will close gradually.
Negotiations are under way between Warner Bros, Seibu Group, the Tokyo metropolitan government and others - with a decision expected to be formally made by this spring.
The content of the theme park is being discussed, with reference to Warner Bros' film-making studio in London where visitors can tour the studio sets that were used for the making of the Harry Potter films (2001 to 2011).
On the tour, visitors can stroll through the sets, including those of the Great Hall of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the shopping street of Diagon Alley and the Platform of the Hogwarts Express locomotive.
They can also see movie props up close, including magic wands.
This is referred to as a studio-type facility, which is different from those of Universal Studios in the United States or Universal Studios Japan (USJ) in Osaka, where rides and attractions are also available.
Toshimaen opened in 1926 and had been a leading amusement park in central Tokyo. It includes amusement facilities, swimming pools and hot spa facilities.
After the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, the Tokyo metropolitan government decided to build a large park as part of its disaster-prevention measures. The government offered to buy the land from Seibu, but negotiations have stagnated in recent years.
According to sources, Warner Bros joined the negotiations last year with a proposal of creating the Harry Potter theme park, which has started the talks moving again.
Harry Potter is a series of fantasy novels written by British writer J. K. Rowling, with the titular boy wizard as the main character. The first novel was published in Britain in 1997, with its Japanese translation published in Japan in 1999.
Warner Bros made a screen version of the first novel in 2001 when the book became a global hit. Sequels of both the novel and the film have been made in subsequent years.
The Harry Potter facilities in USJ opened in 2014.
USJ is fairly popular among foreign visitors to Japan and has also become a centrepiece of sightseeing tours in the Kansai region.
YOMIURI SHIMBUN/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
