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The story
It’s been reported that ‘Jungleia,’ the theme park that opened in July 2025 in Nakijin Village, Okinawa Prefecture, is still falling short of its original visitor projections and running at a loss more than a year after opening. While the park launched with a huge publicity push, the history of theme parks is littered with brutal survival battles, and the original article features entertainment sociologist Atsuo Nakayama explaining the park’s current standing and the structure of the industry. In the resulting 5ch thread, many pointed to the location itself — saying it “doesn’t feel like a jungle at all, more like a hilly park on a former golf course” — and blamed the lack of a well-known IP (intellectual property), while others brought up how USJ turned around its own early struggles by introducing family-friendly IP, sparking discussion on possible paths to a comeback.
November 9, 2026, 12:00 PM
In July 2025, the theme park ‘Jungleia’ opened in Nakijin Village in northern Okinawa Prefecture. With heavy pre-launch PR and buzz, it was truly a launch with huge fanfare, but more than a year after opening, it’s being reported that the park is in a tough spot, with visitor numbers falling short of initial projections. Behind the glossy image, though, looking back at the history of theme parks reveals something that could be called “the mixed martial arts of the entertainment world” — a brutal survival battle. We spoke with entertainment sociologist Atsuo Nakayama about where Jungleia currently stands and the real structure of the theme park business.
Nomura: Jungleia opened in July 2025 — what kind of figures about its current situation are actually circulating publicly right now?
Source: news.livedoor.com / Original article here
What people said
Nintendo's having a rough time too
Nintendo should just hand itself over to China
The PS5 is also perfect for playing popular free games from China and Korea
The PS5 really is the console Japanese citizens should buy for the sake of the national interest
Yeah, stuff like Pokémon should be handed over to China too
True patriots buy a PS5
If they'd gone with Chiikawa (a popular cute-character IP) from the start it might've worked, but it's too late now
– There's no jungle
It's a former golf course, so it's basically just a park with some hills lying around
You could pull in huge crowds with the poor as players and the rich as spectators
And make the parking lot huge so the rich can roll up in their Mercedes
It should be a theme park staffed entirely by nurturing women in their 50s
A nursery school run by moms
One thing's for sure — mediocre defensive measures won't be enough to survive
Why dinosaurs in Okinawa of all places
There's no way people were gonna accept an idea like that
In Japan, dinosaurs are Fukui's thing, you know
Jurassic Park was filmed in the forests of Hawaii's Big Island
Maybe that's what gave them the idea
Huge losses, and yet? Staff are still pulling fat paychecks, so of course nothing's gonna improve lol
Exactly
If it were their own money on the line, labor costs would be the first thing cut, but that's not happening here
Nobody cares how to bring in more customers
They're not desperate, so nobody does anything
They can nap all day and still get paid with tax money
Or Komodo dragons — something with real buzz
You know, to actually make it feel like a jungle
iZoo (a reptile zoo) just got a Komodo dragon
Guess you can get the Jungleia experience in Izu now
'It was fun once you got there' doesn't mean anything
To begin with, the hurdle to even make that first visit to this kind of theme park is already high
The top reasons people bother going to Okinawa are still the ocean and Ryukyu culture
That's why Churaumi Aquarium succeeded
The UNESCO World Heritage gusuku castle ruins like Shuri Castle and Nakijin Castle
Plus marine sports — people are busy enough as it is, and I don't feel even a shred of appeal strong enough to burn a precious day off on this
It's IP, IP
If it were 'Chiikawa Okinawa Land' or 'Ryukyu Demon Slayer Land,' it would've turned a profit long ago
Either way, without an IP the investment is nowhere near enough
In that case people would just be drawn by the casino itself
People think 'I want to go to Disneyland, so let's go to Tokyo'
Or 'I want to go to USJ, so let's go to Osaka'
But nobody thinks 'I want to go to Jungleia, so let's go to Okinawa'
The whole premise is wrong from the start
Nothing beats nature as entertainment
All you need is grand scenery with nothing in it and a luxurious private space
A big swing or some other Instagram-worthy spot here and there is plenty
You don't need to compete on the same terms as some cluttered city
You might not realize it, but you can find plenty of grand nature just by heading to places like Chichibu, Sagamihara, or Tohoku
That's because they ignored families
They pushed it as a theme park for adults, so families didn't even give it a second look
It only took off after a major overhaul that brought in anime and game IPs for young kids, turning it into something the whole family could enjoy
That's pretty niche though… might just go up in flames
Okinawa used to be deep ocean floor anyway, so decent fossils don't turn up there… only lame ones
You mean the trick of pumping in tax money to make it look profitable?
And our tax money keeps getting devoured along with it
Sounds just like Japanese soccer
It comes across like they've just given up
Background and Key Points of This Topic
Jungleia is a theme park that opened in Nakijin Village, Okinawa Prefecture in July 2025, built on land that was formerly a golf course. It launched with huge fanfare, its PR leaning hard on a tropical jungle theme, but more than a year later, visitor numbers still haven’t reached the original targets, and the park has been reported to be running at a loss. The original article draws on an interview with entertainment sociologist Atsuo Nakayama, laying out the brutal survival-of-the-fittest structure of the theme park industry as a whole. Opinion in the thread mainly split over “what’s holding back visitor numbers” — some blamed the lack of a well-known IP (intellectual property) like Chiikawa or Demon Slayer, while others questioned how Okinawa’s unique natural and cultural resources could be put to better use. Commenters also pointed to how USJ struggled early on before turning things around by introducing family-friendly IP, raising the question of whether a similar turnaround is possible here. Worth noting: the criticism of tax-funded spending and staff pay (comments #34 and #84) is speculation from the thread itself, not facts confirmed by the original article.
*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Geinou/Sports News+) thread “Theme Park ‘Jungleia’ Was in the Red — What Does It Take for a Comeback?.”
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