Junglia Okinawa Amusement Park Opens; Aiming to Revitalize Northern Okinawa Island

By Minami Sato / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

17:06 JST, July 25, 2025

NAHA — Junglia Okinawa opened Friday in northern Okinawa Island as the first large-scale theme park in Okinawa Prefecture.

Covering an area of about 600,000 square meters, the park recreates a tropical jungle with over 30,000 trees, and it has several outdoor attractions including a dinosaur safari. Leveraging its location, the park aims to attract customers with “2 billion people in Asia” as its target.

Junglia, on the border between the village of Nakijin and Nago City, was developed on the site of a former golf course with an investment of about ¥70 billion.

The park features 22 attractions, including Dinosaur Safari, where guests explore a jungle inhabited by animatronic dinosaurs and witness T-Rex attacks; Horizon Balloon, with its panoramic view from a giant hot air balloon at an altitude of 200 meters; and Buggy Voltage, a drive through the jungle with buggies.

The park, also featuring spa facilities and dining options, has an estimated length of stay of about six hours.

On the opening day, the reservation-only parking lot that can accommodate 1,126 cars was full, and admission tickets were sold out in advance, according to Junglia. It says tickets for July are sold out, and no tickets are available for sale at the entrance. Tickets for some days in August are also sold out.

Hope for tourism promotion

Junglia was planned under the leadership of Katana Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tsuyoshi Morioka, who served as an executive at Universal Studios Japan (USJ) in Osaka and was behind its management restructuring.

Okinawa attracts nearly 10 million tourists annually, but most visitors concentrate in the southern part of the island such as Naha.

The northern part of Okinawa Island is covered with wilderness and forests, hosts about 60% of U.S. military facilities in the prefecture and features few tourist attractions besides Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium. Depopulation and low income are issues in the area, and Junglia is hoped to lead regional revitalization.

Local companies including Orion Breweries, Ltd. funded Junglia’s operator, accounting for about 70% of its total shareholders.

“It is significant in terms of revitalizing the northern region,” Yasushi Kawakami, chairman of Bank of The Ryukyus, Ltd., said.

Compared to USJ and Tokyo Disney Resort, located in major urban areas, Junglia has a smaller surrounding population. However, it is within a four-hour flight radius of such major cities as Shanghai, Seoul and Hong Kong, giving the operator hope to attract visitors from among “2 billion people in Asia.”

The park has introduced a dual pricing system with overseas residents paying a higher admission fee: ¥6,930 for domestic visitors aged 12 or older and ¥8,800 for overseas residents, with tax included for both.

J.F. Oberlin University Prof. Yuji Yamaguchi, who specializes in theme park studies, said, “Unlike theme parks in metropolitan areas that have a large base of repeat customers nearby, Junglia will have to attract tourists from outside the region to become repeat customers and come back every few years.”