＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:https://skawa68.com/
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49）さん / X
1. USJ’s declining popularity
Compared to Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea, Universal Studios Japan (USJ) had a long period of declining popularity from the year after its opening until around 2009.
The two “Disney” ones have characters such as Mickey Mouse that are familiar to baby boomers, and can be enjoyed by “families” of both adults and children, as well as by enthusiastic adult Disney fans, many of whom are “repeat visitors.
Recently, a female staff member in her 30s filed a lawsuit alleging that she had been subjected to power harassment, but as this is an internal issue within Oriental Land, I don’t think it will have much of an impact on visitor numbers.
On the other hand, USJ has the weakness of only having a limited number of popular characters from Universal Movies, as well as few attractions that children can enjoy and characters that they like.
Originally, USJ opened on March 31, 2001 with the concept of being “a theme park where guests can fully experience the world of Hollywood movies such as ‘Jaws’ and ‘Jurassic Park – The Ride’ through exciting and moving rides and show attractions that far exceed their expectations and imagination.”
Steven Spielberg, who has worked on numerous Universal Pictures productions, serves as the park’s executive creative director.
In its first year of operation, the number of visitors counted 11 million, but in the second year it dropped to the 7 million range, and thereafter it generally remained in the 8 million range, but in 2009, amid the ongoing deflation of the Japanese economy, the number of visitors dropped to the low 7 million range, the lowest ever.
2. the instigator of USJ’s V-shaped recovery in popularity
Coming on board is Tsuyoshi Morioka, Executive Officer. He is one of Japan’s leading marketers and strategists, and is also a best-selling author of business books. He was headhunted for his outstanding performance at P&G and joined USJ in June of 2010.
He set forth the “three-stage rocket concept” as a major strategy for management recovery.
The first stage rocket was the opening of the new “Universal Wonderland” area in 2012 as a way to “turn USJ’s weakness in attracting family visitors into a strength.
With the funds earned from this, the second stage of the rocket, aiming to “break away from its reliance on Kansai for attracting customers,” was invested in 45 billion yen and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter was opened in 2014.
The strategy is to use the funds earned from this to launch the third stage rocket, “expanding new parks to multiple locations throughout Japan and Asia using the know-how to efficiently operate theme parks,” thereby making USJ a leading company in Asia in the entertainment sector.
Regarding the third stage rocket, plans were made with the national and prefectural governments to enter Okinawa Prefecture and an agreement was almost reached, but USJ was acquired by the American media giant Comcast in 2015, and the plan was cancelled due to a change in strategy that came with changes in capital.
Mr. Morioka himself resigned from USJ in January 2017. Although his ostensible reason is that “my mission to revive USJ is over,” it is not difficult to imagine that there was a conflict with Comcast, which acquired USJ, over the management policy and growth strategy.
What is particularly noteworthy about Morioka, the driving force behind USJ’s V-shaped recovery is that he used a free-thinking approach that was not limited to “movies” to try to recover the park’s ability to attract customers, even though he raised ticket prices significantly. In 2016, the number of visitors reached 14.6 million.
In short, it can be said that the theme park has succeeded in regaining popularity by “getting away from movies,” or rather, by “making it a theme park that is not bound by the stereotype of being only for movies, but can be fully enjoyed by families, including children, as well as adults who love movies.
Recently, Chinese and Korean family tourists with goods of “Minion” and “Spiderman,” popular characters of USJ, are often seen around Osaka Station.
As for the future of USJ, it is not my concern as an outsider, but I think that the “third stage rocket” should be frozen and for the time being the company should concentrate on recovering the huge investment of 45 billion yen that was invested in “Harry Potter”.
In fact, Comcast has acquired them, but “don’t overextend themselves.” As is often the case with “fast-growing companies,” spreading themselves too thin can lead to losing everything. I hope they stick to a solid management policy.
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