Essay About Terms Of The Japanese Leisure Market And Basic Structure Of The Parks

Tokyo Disneyland (tdl)
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Tokyo Disneyland (TDL), which opened in April 1983 in the Tokyo
bay area, is a big organization and a big success. In 1996, it had 12,390
employees, about 2,000 regulars and 10,000 part-timers. This makes
TDL the biggest workplace among Japans diversionary outings. In the
same year, TDL was visited by slightly more than 16 million people.
This makes it the most successful theme park in the world (see table 1).
In terms of the Japanese leisure market, TDLs number of visitors
more or less equals the number of visitors to the rest of the parks in
Japan, and its yearly revenues are bigger than those of the rest of the
parks put together. TDL is owned and operated by a Japanese company,
Oriental Land Company (OLC), which is a partnership between Mitsui
Real Estate Development (Mitsui FudGsan) and Keisei Electric Railway
(Keisei Dentetsu). OLC was licensed by Disney in return for 10% of the
admissions and 5% of food and souvenir sales. Ever since 1983, TDLs
marketing strategy has basically remained the same, claiming that it is a
100% copy of the American original. This is in line with the common
view of Disney as a symbol of global Americanization and cultural
imperialism. My aim, in contrast, is to look at TDL “from below,” from
the point of view of its adaptation and consumption.
The vast bulk of Disney studies has concentrated on Disneyland
(DL) and Walt Disney World (WDW), rather than on TDL and
Disneyland Paris. The main reason for this, as Alan Bryman notes, is
that the parks in America have existed longer and have been more accessible
to English-writing scholars (63). Moreover, the common belief is
that the basic structure of the parks has been globally replicated in the
Japanese and French “copies.” To be sure, all parks comprise the same
four basic “lands,” a castle, a Main Street funnel, and many similar rides.
However, the “global” preconception ignores the actual differences
which