Nara Dreamland

, also known as just Dreamland, was a theme park in Nara, Japan. The park opened on July 1, 1961 and closed down on August 31, 2006. The theme park was known for its similarity to Disneyland in Anaheim, California.

Japanese businessman Kunizo Matsuo went to Disneyland when it opened and tried to convince Walt Disney to bring a Disney theme park to Japan. Disney sent people to visit the area in Japan but decided to not build a park there because there were disagreements with licencing.

Matsuo decided to create the park anyways and replaced all Disney-owned characters and properties. The park had a lot of similar rides and buildings with Disneyland such as a Matterhorn-like mountain with bobsleigh rides, a castle at the entrance similar to Sleeping Beauty Castle, a riverboat ride like the Jungle Cruise ride, and a Main Street similar to Main Street, U.S.A.. Walt Disney was very angry when he found out about the theme park.

On April 15, 1983, Disney decided to finally expand into Japan and opened Tokyo Disneyland. This caused the attendance for Nara Dreamland to drop drastically. When both Tokyo DisneySea and Universal Studios Japan opened in 2001, it cut the attendance to the park even more.

On August 31, 2006, the decision was made to close down Nara Dreamland. After its closure, the park sat abandoned for over 10 years and was a popular urban exploration spot. In October 2016, the park was bought by SK Housing. On October 10, 2016, the began to demolish the park. It was completed in 2017.

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Category:1960s establishments in Japan
Category:1961 establishments in Asia
Category:2000s disestablishments in Japan
Category:2006 disestablishments
Category:Nara Prefecture
Category:Theme parks in Japan