Market share of leisure

OLC occupy Japanese amusement by TDR!?

The market size of leisure indsutry(activities) in Japan is about 777 billion yen(about 7.7 billion dollars) according to the leisure white papaer 2016 written by Japan Productivity Center. In the survey of Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the total sales of amusement parks and theme parks is about 658 billion yen. This sales decreased from 2007 to 2011 because of the financial crisis and recession, but it recovered from 2012 and is increaseing in recent years.

Japanese amusement park and theme park have a long history. In 1853, Asakusa Hanayashiki opend in Tokyo is the oldest amusement park in Japan. It also has the oldest domestic roller coaster in Japan. Hirakata park in Osaka which opened in 1910 is the second oldest amusement park. It has more than 1.2 million visitors for a year even now.

In addition, it is said that Spa Resort Hawaiians which opened in 1966 is the first theme park in Japan. Tokyo Disney Resort is not the first of it. After that, many amusement and theme parks opened all over the Japan because of Japanese asset price bubble from 80s to 90s. However, most of them closed because of recession after bubble economy in the late 1990s.

In the Japanese amusement park history, TDR(Tokyo Disney Resort) is the most popular and largest theme parks in Japan from it opened in 1983. Its sales is about 465 billion yen, and account for 70% of the total sales of amusement and theme parks. USJ(Universal Studios Japan) is increasing its sales and expanding the share of this market. However, TDR has over 30 million visitors for a year, that is twice as large as USJ's 15 million visitors.

In addition, TDR held 15th anniversary called "The Year of Wish" and opened Nemo & Friends SeaRider which based on Finding Nemo and Finding Dory in 2017. Oriental Land Co. which operates TDR announced invest 250 billion yen in TDR until 2020 to constantly have over 30 million visitors. It plans to oepn Soarin in 2019, Beauty and the Beast area in 2020 and theme port basend on Frozen, Tangled and PeterPan in 2022.

USJ(Universal Studios Japan) which opened in 2001 is the second largest theme park in Japan. It achieved having over 10 million visitors at the first year, that was the fastest record of 10 million visitors then. However, the number of its visitors remains flat or decreased slightly until 2013 since its attractions could not be the major attractions. The number of its visitors overcame 10 million again in 2014 because of "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter". "JURASSK PARK THE FLYING DINOSAUR" which opened in 2016 is also popular. The number of its visitors in 2016 is record high 14.6 million. In addition, USJ plans to open "Super Nitendo World" area based on Super Mario in 2020.

Huis Ten Bosch in Nagasaki prefecture operated by HIS is also increasing its sales. Its results deteriorated because the number of its visitors declined before HIS bought it in 2010. HIS recovered its sales and profit with some companies in Kyushu region. Huis Ten Bosch's theme is Netherlands, it displays life-sized copies of old Dutch builiding. It has not only Dutch buliding and flower canal but also attractions, activities, waterpark and more.

There are many amusement and theme parks in Japan except above amusement parks. Fujikyu Highland in Yamanashi prefecture is well known for various scream machines(thrill rides). Nagashima Spa Land is also well known for various roller coasters. Japanese thrill ride fans say that Fujikyu Highland is a east king and Nagashima Spa Land is a west king in Japan. Sanrio Puroland is always jam packed with Sanrio charcter fans like Hello Kity fans.

By the way, there are many museum like small amusement park. Ghibli Museum which based on Ghibli animataion is very popular. FUJIKO-F-FUJIO MUSEUM which is also based on Japanese anime, Doraemon and Kiteretsu Daihyakka(Kiteretsu Encyclopedia), is also popular. In addition, J-world Tokyo which opened in 2013 have goods and attractions about JUMP anime, One Piece, NARUTO, Dragon Ball Z, Bleach and more.

USJ is a unlisted company, but Oriental Land(TYO:4661) is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Foreign investors can invest in it on NYSE by ADR(American Depositary Receipt). They can invest OLC through many ETFs, iShares MSCI Japan ETF(EWJ), Wisdomtree Japan Hedged ETF(DXJ) and more. Many Japanese companies increase their sales and profit with weak yen. If investors want to hedge an impact of fluctuations in foregn exchange rates, they should invest currency hedged ETFs, Deutsche X-trackers MSCI Japan Currency-Hedged Equity Fund(DBJP) and iShares Currency Hedged MSCI Japan ETF(HEWJ).