Universal Studios Japan Looks to Anime, Games, and Global Growth
On June 1, Taku Murayama, 53, officially took the helm as president of Universal Studios Japan (USJ). The popular venue is operated by USJ LLC in Osaka's Konohana Ward.
In a joint interview with The Sankei Shimbun and other media outlets ahead of his appointment, Murayama voiced strong enthusiasm for creating new attractions and themed areas inspired by anime and video game content. He also described Expo 2025, currently underway on the nearby artificial island of Yumeshima, as a key "litmus test" for the future of tourism in Osaka and the broader Kansai region.
Murayama is the first Japanese national to lead the company in 21 years. Notably, he is the first to rise through its internal ranks. Looking ahead, he emphasized a deliberate approach to content strategy. "I want to carefully consider which intellectual properties we choose to work with," he stated.
Tokyo Disney Resort (TDR) in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, centers its identity around Mickey Mouse and the Disney universe. USJ, on the other hand, stands out for its eclectic blend of domestic and international anime and gaming content. It is this mishmash that defines its unique appeal.
Asked about how he plans to strike a balance between Japanese and overseas IPs, Murayama pointed to Super Nintendo World, which debuted in 2021 and brings the world of Nintendo games to life. He stressed the importance of choosing "globally popular, long-lasting IPs" as a guiding principle.
"Every country has its own hit content," he noted, adding that USJ conducts regular market research to stay attuned to shifting tastes. "We want to understand what kinds of attractions and areas people are really looking for — and develop experiences that meet that demand." Murayama lays out his strategic vision for USJ's future.
According to data released by the Themed Entertainment Association in August 2024, USJ ranked third in global theme park attendance for the second consecutive year. Visitor numbers surged by 29.6% year-on-year, reaching a total of 16 million.
Reflecting on his time as Director of Inbound Sales in 2009, Murayama recalled the challenges of raising USJ's international profile. "At the time, people in mainland China really didn't know who we were," he said.
Murayama attributed USJ's continued success not only to its strong lineup of IP-based attractions but also to its immersive seasonal programming. For example, events like Christmas and Halloween transform the park's atmosphere throughout the year. "Guest satisfaction is built on the dedication and hard work of our team," he emphasized.
To remain a top-tier destination, he stressed the need to position Osaka and the Kansai region as must-visit travel hubs. He highlighted the significance of Expo 2025, calling it "a true test of Kansai's tourism potential and its challenges."
Murayama also pointed to the integrated resort (IR) project — including a casino — set to open on Yumeshima in autumn 2030. that, he says, will provide another key benchmark for long-term tourism growth in the region.
Born in Tokyo, Murayama completed his graduate studies at Webster University in the United States in October 1999. He joined USJ in 2000 and held various roles in marketing and sales before being appointed Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer in April 2020. He became president of USJ on June 1, 2025.
Author: Keiko Tamura, The Sankei Shimbun
このページを 日本語 で読む
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Japan Forward
4 hours ago
- Japan Forward
Japan Needs a New Role that's Not America's Cash Dispenser
Can Japan reclaim a sovereign economic policy when its role as a major funder of America has grown for decades while the US current account deficit has widened? US President Donald Trump and Japan's Economic Revitalization Minister Ryosei Akazawa during tariff negotiations. The White House posted this on X (formerly Twitter) on July 22. It shouldn't surprise anyone that leaders in the United States treat Japan as a cash dispenser. President Donald Trump touted the Japan-US agreement for a $550 billion USD (about ¥80 trillion JPY) investment-and-loan framework. He called it "like a signing bonus that a baseball player would get… That's our money. It's our money to invest, as we like." US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick put it bluntly: "Japanese are the financier. They are the banker. They are not the operator." The Ishiba administration has bargained almost exclusively over tariff rates in the Japan-US talks — most notably, bringing forward the 15% tariff on automobiles and auto parts. By contrast, the Trump administration is intent on locking in Japan's framework for investment in the US.A comparison of Japanese firms' direct investment in the US with their domestic capital spending shows both total and net amounts. For domestic investment, net means gross outlays minus depreciation — that is, new facilities. For US investment, net excludes reinvestment of locally generated funds, so most of it represents new facilities. In gross terms, investment headed to the US is about one-third of domestic spending. On a net basis, the relationship flips. In fiscal 2023 and 2024, net investment in the US is more than double the net investment at home. During his February visit to Washington, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba sought to ingratiate himself with Trump. He boasted that Japan is the largest source of direct investment in that country. In practice, Japan is channeling capital to America while shortchanging investment at home. For a White House bent on reviving American manufacturing, Japan is like a moth to the flame. Japanese firms are gladly bringing fresh capital and cutting-edge technology to the US. Alongside steep import tariffs, the Trump administration is urging companies from Japan and Europe to invest in the US. That approach bore fruit in the Japan-US tariff deal on July 22 and the US-European Union (EU) deal on July 27. Japan's investment in the US is fully underwritten by government-affiliated lenders. It is led by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), through equity, loans, and credit guarantees. By contrast, under the US-EU agreement, the EU has declared that investment will be executed entirely by the private sector, not governments. EU data show the bloc's net direct investment in the US is highly volatile as it prioritizes repatriation. In 2023, it swung sharply negative. Japan's investment, by comparison, has risen steadily. And with government-affiliated institutions now fully engaged, that trajectory is likely to continue. Investment always entails risk. In manufacturing, private capital often hesitates under the pricing pressure of cheap Chinese imports. When government-affiliated institutions fund firms directly — or guarantee their bank loans — they take on that risk, clearing a major obstacle to private investment. On top of that, roughly 90% of the returns from these investments accrue to the US, with only about 10% to Japan. President Donald Trump speaks at the White House on August 6. (©Reuters via Kyodo) Getting the deal, Trump declared, "It's our money to invest, as we like," signaling that Washington would choose the investors, the projects, and the spending. The implication was plain: Japan should just provide the money. The cash dispenser label has rarely felt more apt. Only one prominent Japanese politician ever openly pushed back. He was former Finance Minister Shōichi Nakagawa, who died in October 2009. After the collapse of Lehman Brothers on September 15, 2008, Nakagawa visited the White House on October 11. He met President George W Bush and others to discuss Washington's plans to rescue its financial institutions. There, he was shocked to learn that the Bush administration had removed North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, despite unresolved abductions of Japanese citizens. He pressed Bush directly. Back in Tokyo and still dissatisfied, Nakagawa received an old acquaintance — a former senior US official — at the minister's office after 3 PM on October 20. He asked him to deliver a verbal message to President Bush: "Japan will not quietly serve as America's cash dispenser." I was present as the interpreter. (For details, see my book Bōkoku no Zaimu Genrishugi (tentative English title: The Fiscal Fundamentalism Driving Japan to Ruin ), published by Kaya Shobo.) Since Nakagawa's death, Japan's role as a major funder of America has only grown. The US current account deficit keeps widening. Surplus capital from Japan — where domestic demand is weak — flows into dollar-denominated markets, supporting US equities, the dollar, and US Treasuries. Even so, it's hard to say Japan secured better terms from Washington than the EU or the United Kingdom (UK) in the tariff deal. Lamenting the Ishiba administration's weakness won't change that. The task now is to reclaim a sovereign economic policy that puts domestic investment first. Unless Japan abandons tax hikes, austerity, and overreliance on the US market, it will remain America's cash dispenser. (Read the report in Japanese .) Author: Hideo Tamura
Winnipeg Free Press
7 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
US and China extend trade truce another 90 days, easing tension between world's largest economies
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump extended a trade truce with China for another 90 days Monday, at least delaying once again a dangerous showdown between the world's two biggest economies. Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that he signed the executive order for the extension, and that 'all other elements of the Agreement will remain the same.' Beijing at the same time also announced the extension of the tariff pause via the official news agency Xinhua. The previous deadline was set to expire at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday. Had that happened the U.S. could have ratcheted up taxes on Chinese imports from an already high 30%, and Beijing could have responded by raising retaliatory levies on U.S. exports to China. The pause buys time for the two countries to work out some of their differences, perhaps clearing the way for a summit later this year between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, and it has been welcomed by the U.S. companies doing business with China. Sean Stein, president of the U.S.-China Business Council, said the extension is 'critical' to give the two governments time to negotiate a trade agreement that U.S. businesses hope would improve their market access in China and provide the certainty needed for companies to make medium- and long-term plans. 'Securing an agreement on fentanyl that leads to a reduction in U.S. tariffs and a rollback of China's retaliatory measures is acutely needed to restart U.S. agriculture and energy exports,' Stein said. Reaching a pact with China remains unfinished business for Trump, who has already upended the global trading system by slapping double-digit taxes – tariffs – on almost every country on earth. The European Union, Japan and other trading partners agreed to lopsided trade deals with Trump, accepting once unthinkably U.S. high tariffs (15% on Japanese and EU imports, for instance) to ward off something worse. Trump's trade policies have turned the United States from one of the most open economies in the world into a protectionist fortress. The average U.S. tariff has gone from around 2.5% at the start of the year to 18.6%, highest since 1933, according to the Budget Lab at Yale University. But China tested the limits of a U.S. trade policy built around using tariffs as a cudgel to beat concessions out of trading partners. Beijing had a cudgel of its own: cutting off or slowing access to its rare earths minerals and magnets – used in everything from electric vehicles to jet engines. In June, the two countries reached an agreement to ease tensions. The United States said it would pull back export restrictions on computer chip technology and ethane, a feedstock in petrochemical production. And China agreed to make it easier for U.S. firms to get access to rare earths. 'The U.S. has realized it does not have the upper hand,'' said Claire Reade, senior counsel at Arnold & Porter and former assistant U.S. trade representative for China affairs. In May, the U.S. and China had averted an economic catastrophe by reducing massive tariffs they'd slapped on each other's products, which had reached as high as 145% against China and 125% against the U.S. Those triple-digit tariffs threatened to effectively end trade between the United States and China and caused a frightening sell-off in financial markets. In a May meeting in Geneva they agreed to back off and keep talking: America's tariffs went back down to a still-high 30% and China's to 10%. Having demonstrated their ability to hurt each other, they've been talking ever since. 'By overestimating the ability of steep tariffs to induce economic concessions from China, the Trump administration has not only underscored the limits of unilateral U.S. leverage, but also given Beijing grounds for believing that it can indefinitely enjoy the upper hand in subsequent talks with Washington by threatening to curtail rare earth exports,' said Ali Wyne, a specialist in U.S.-China relations at the International Crisis Group. 'The administration's desire for a trade détente stems from the self-inflicted consequences of its earlier hubris.' Monday Mornings The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week. It's unclear whether Washington and Beijing can reach a grand bargain over America's biggest grievances. Among these are lax Chinese protection of intellectual property rights and Beijing's subsidies and other industrial policies that, the Americans say, give Chinese firms an unfair advantage in world markets and have contributed to a massive U.S. trade deficit with China of $262 billion last year. Reade doesn't expect much beyond limited agreements such as the Chinese saying they will buy more American soybeans and promising to do more to stop the flow of chemicals used to make fentanyl and to allow the continued flow of rare-earth magnets. But the tougher issues will likely linger, and 'the trade war will continue grinding ahead for years into the future,'' said Jeff Moon, a former U.S. diplomat and trade official who now runs the China Moon Strategies consultancy. ____ Associated Press Staff Writer Josh Boak contributed to this story.
Canada News.Net
12 hours ago
- Canada News.Net
Wall Street records across-the-board declines Monday
NEW YORK, New York - U.S. stocks ended weaker on Monday in volatile trading, as investors and traders look to economic data due this week which could shape the direction of interest rates in the foreseeable future. The consumer price index will be released on Tuesday, while the producer price index is due on Thursday. "I'm getting a little concerned that the market is going to end up being disappointed," CFRA Research's Sam Stovall told CNBC Monday. "The Fed will have a conundrum to deal with if inflation remains sticky and if the consumer remains willing to spend — where is the need to cut rates?" U.S. Equity Markets in Retreat The S&P 500 (^GSPC) dipped 16.00 points, or 0.25 percent, to close at 6,373.45, with trading volume reaching 2.827 billion shares. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) saw steeper losses, falling 200.52 points, or 0.45 percent, to 43,975.09 on moderate volume of 422.779 million shares. Tech stocks also struggled as the NASDAQ Composite (^IXIC) declined 64.62 points, or 0.30 percent, to 21,385.40, with heavy turnover of 7.577 billion shares. U.S. Dollar Records Across-the-Board Gains Monday The US dollar was stronger against the majors in foreign exchange markets on Monday, strengthening against the euro and commodity-linked currencies while the Japanese yen extended its decline. Key Currency Movements EUR/USD fell to 1.1604, down 0.31 percent, as the euro weakened. USD/JPY rose to 148.20, gaining 0.34 percent, as the yen remained under pressure. USD/CAD climbed to 1.3786, up 0.23 percent, as oil price fluctuations weighed on the Canadian dollar. GBP/USD dipped to 1.3426, losing 0.16 percent, as traders awaited key UK economic data later in the week. USD/CHF rose 0.64 percent to 0.8127, marking one of the day's strongest dollar gains. Commodity Currencies Under Pressure The Australian and New Zealand dollars both softened against the greenback: AUD/USD slipped 0.13 percent to 0.6509. NZD/USD dropped 0.27 percent to 0.5934, reflecting broader risk-off sentiment. Market Drivers Analysts attributed the dollar's strength to: Safe-haven flows amid geopolitical tensions. Diverging central bank policies, with the Fed expected to maintain higher rates longer than peers. Weakness in European and commodity-linked currencies due to growth concerns. Global Markets End Mixed Monday, Japanese markers Shine as Nikkei 225 Jumps 761 Points; FTSE 100 Gains While DAX and CAC 40 Slip Canada In contrast to U.S. stock markets, Canada's S&P/TSX Composite edged up 16.55 points or 0.06 percent to 27,775.23 with 21.77 million shares traded. . UK and Europe The FTSE 100 (^FTSE) in London closed at 9,129.71, rising 33.98 points or 0.37 percent, buoyed by strength in energy and financial stocks. However, Germany's DAX (^GDAXI) dipped 81.52 points, or 0.34 percent, to 24,081.34, while in France the CAC 40 (^FCHI) fell 44.48 points, or 0.57 percent, to 7,698.52. The broader EURO STOXX 50 (^STOXX50E) also declined, shedding 15.89 points, or 0.30 percent, to 5,331.85. The Euronext 100 (^N100) edged down 1.44 points, or 0.09 percent, to 1,578.30, while Belgium's BEL 20 (^BFX) slipped 7.16 points, or 0.15 percent, to 4,726.75. Asia and Pacific In Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng (^HSI) rose 47.99 points, or 0.19 percent, to 24,906.81, while in Singapore the STI (^STI) dipped 7.05 points, or 0.17 percent, to 4,232.78. China's SSE Composite ( rose 12.42 points, or 0.34 percent, to 3,647.55, while in Japan the Nikkei 225 (^N225) led gains in Asia, surging 761.38 points, or 1.85 percent, to 41,820.48—a fresh multi-decade high. In Australia the S&P/ASX 200 (^AXJO) climbed 37.70 points, or 0.43 percent, to 8,844.80, and the All Ordinaries (^AORD) gained 41.00 points, or 0.45 percent, to 9,117.60. India's Sensex (^BSESN) surged 746.29 points, or 0.93 percent, to a record 80,604.08, while in Indonesia the IDX Composite (^JKSE) jumped 72.54 points, or 0.96 percent, to 7,605.92. Malaysia's KLCI (^KLSE) rose 6.26 points, or 0.40 percent, to 1,563.24, and New Zealand's NZX 50 (^NZ50) added 67.23 points, or 0.52 percent, to 12,911.86. In South Korea the KOSPI (^KS11) dipped slightly, losing 3.24 points, or 0.10 percent, to 3,206.77, while Taiwan's TWSE (^TWII) gained 114.24 points, or 0.48 percent, to 24,135.50. Middle East & Africa In Israel the TA-125 (^ dropped 26.99 points, or 0.89 percent, to 2,993.71, while Egypt's EGX 30 (^CASE30) fell 201.30 points, or 0.56 percent, to 35,908.50. In South Africa the Top 40 USD (^ declined 27.87 points, or 0.49 percent, to 5,642.43.
