Tokyo Disneyland (tdl)

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 Japan's 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, TDL's 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, TDL's

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