Japan is Finally Building an Official Studio Ghibli Theme Park

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After years of promises and rumors, Studio Ghibli is finally set to build their very own theme park in Japan.


While plans for Japan’s answer to Disney World have been known for years now, Studio Ghibli is partnering with the Aichi Prefecture government and the Japanese media /newspaper company Chunichi Shimbun.

Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki, Aichi governor Hideaki Omura and Chunichi CEO Uichiro Oshima confirmed the first details in a press conference in Tokyo.

The park will be built in Aichi Commemorative Park, which is near Nagoya, in central Japan.

The park was the site of a World Fair back in 2005, where Ghibli helped build a real-life recreation of Satsuki and Mei’s house from My Neighbor Totoro (which still stands today).

Featured above, you can view a mockup Ghibli boss Hayao Miyazaki did a few years back for how he envisioned a Ghibli theme park to look. Perhaps it’ll look something like this? If there are no cat monorails I’m going to start a riot.

Studio Ghibli will handle the creative aspects of the project, which reportedly has five themed areas.

One of the areas confirmed confirmed is based on 2004’s Howl’s Moving Castle, while another is based on 1998’s Princess Mononoke. Hayao’s son, Goro Miyazaki, is working directly on the project,

Despite retiring back in 2013, Hayao is still working on other projects – like the studio’s next film, How Do You Live?, which is based on the Yoshino Genzaburo novel of the same name. This new theme park is simply another post-retirement project for him.

Lastly, the Ghibli theme park is set to open sometime in 2022.


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