May 10 (Nikkei) - Walt Disney on Tuesday announced Shanghai Disneyland will reopen on May 11, becoming the first Disney theme park to do so. But the Tokyo resort is not expected to follow Shanghai's lead anytime soon.
Oriental Land on Friday announced it will extend its shutdown in accordance with Japan's state of emergency, which Prime Minister Shinzo Abe earlier this week formally extended through the end of May. A decision on a reopening date, which the operator had previously said it would consider later this month, will be put off until the government and local authorities lift business shutdown requests.
Oriental Land also said it will put some 5,400 employees on furlough for four days a month beginning May 18. These workers will receive partial salaries for the days they are furloughed, and the system will remain in place until park operations resume.
The coronavirus and Japan's responses to it have stymied many businesses, and this week it delivered some particularly acute agony as the country's annual Golden Week holiday period came and went without a large portion of the country's 126 million residents opening up their wallets to travel and otherwise enjoy some free time.
Instead, most residents hunkered down at home.
Now analysts are telling operators of shuttered businesses that another blow is on the way, and that it will hit as soon as they reopen.
"Oriental Land will need to take cautious initiatives such as restricted daily admissions when resuming their operation," said Tomoaki Kawasaki, senior analyst at IwaiCosmo Securities, adding that the pandemic is not likely to peter out before the end of June.
Oriental Land announced its earnings on April 28, telling reporters that it posted a net loss of 8.7 billion yen for the January-March quarter, after having recorded a 15.9 billion yen net profit a year earlier. The operator has suspended its guidance on earnings for this fiscal year through March.
The company had planned to open New Fantasyland at Tokyo Disneyland on April 15, but a new opening date will be put off until sometime after the park reopens, Oriental Land said. New Fantasyland took three years of construction and nearly 75 billion yen to be built. It will include a "Beauty and the Beast" attraction and an indoor theatre.
Another expansion has been halted. The 250 billion yen project will include "Frozen"-themed attractions at Tokyo DisneySea, right next to Disneyland, but a major construction company has suspended its work at the park due to the pandemic, the company said.
The new area will still open as scheduled in fiscal 2023, and there is no change in major investment plans, Oriental Land said.
In Osaka, meanwhile, the operator of Universal Studios Japan is growing nervous about the 60 billion yen investment -- its largest ever -- that it made in Super Mario-themed attractions with the idea of having the expected crowd-pleasers ready by July -- before the Tokyo Olympics. Executives have not made any announcement regarding the attractions since the Olympics were postponed back in March.
