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No Ghibli Museum, Tokyo Disneyland, or Universal Studios Japan as coronavirus closures extend

Casey Baseel Mar 13, 2020
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The country’s top three animation/movie attractions are all closed indefinitely.

At the end of February, with the extent of coronavirus infection in Japan surpassing initial expectations, Tokyo Disneyland and Disney Sea announced that they’d be shutting down from February 29 to March 15. The voluntary measure came after health officials said the first half of March would be a critical time period in stopping the spread of the virus, but it turns out that time frame was overly optimistic.

This week, Tokyo Disney Resort (which consists of both Tokyo Disneyland and Disney Sea) said it will be extending the parks’ closure, and this time it’s declining to give a firm reopening date. While the announcement says the parks predict they’ll be able to safely start receiving visitors again sometime in early April, no official date has been set at this time. In addition, Tokyo Disneyland’s major expansion, with new Beauty and the Beast and Big Hero 6 attractions, which has been in the works for four years and was scheduled to open on April 15, is having its grand opening pushed back to at least mid-May, if not later.

Fans of Japanese animation also got some unpleasant news from Tokyo’s Ghibli Museum. The whimsical shrine to anime director Hayao Miyazaki and his cohorts had initially planned to shut down from February 25 to March 17, but is also delaying its reopening. The Ghibli Museum requires pre-purchases for tickets, which are valid only for their specified date. Although the museum had planned to begin pre-sales for April tickets on March 10, it has since posted on its website that ticket sales are being postponed indefinitely.

Finally, Osaka’s Universal Studios Japan is also extending its closure. Closed since February 29, this week USJ sent out a follow-up statement saying it has officially decided to close the park through March 22. However, the announcement also makes a point of explaining that no reopening date has been set yet, implying that there’s a considerable chance that the closure will be extended again out past the 22nd. The park has yet to comment on whether or not this will affect the scheduled opening of its Super Nintendo World expansion, which is supposed to open this summer.

So basically, if you were planning to visit any of these four facilities over the next several weeks, you’ll probably need to make other plans. At least there’s plenty of free manga and Pokémon anime to enjoy online while self-quarantining at home.

Sources: Tokyo Disney Resort, Ghibli Museum, Universal Studios Japan
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