Japan's newest theme park to be Lego-shaped

Already home to some of the world's most popular theme parks, Japan will be adding to its entertainment opportunities with the opening in 2015 of a Legoland park.

Already home to some of the world's most popular theme parks, Japan willbe adding to its entertainment opportunities with the opening in 2015 of aLegoland park.

Merlin Entertainments Group Ltd. and GCDS Corp. are to move ahead withformal negotiations with the city of Nagoya, in central Japan, afteridentifying a venue on the city's Kinjo Pier for the nation's first themepark devoted to the much-loved plastic bricks.

The first Legoland park was completed in Denmark in 1968, followed byLegoland Windsor in Britain. That was soon followed by parks in Californiaand Germany, while Legoland Florida opened in October of this year. Thesixth park is scheduled to open in the Malaysian city of Iskandar in 2012,making it the first in Asia, but the company behind the brand clearly hasmajor ambitions across the region.

"We are very pleased to be working with GCDS and to have reached thisagreement in Japan, which illustrates the strength of the Legoland brandand of Merlin's business model across the globe," said John Ussher,general manager for the British-based company.

"The Asia-Pacific region provides a great opportunity for Merlin'scontinued development across our brands, particularly Legoland," he said."This site, its potential as a catalyst to build a major tourist andleisure destination in Nagoya and Japan, and the support of the city ofNagoya all played a key role in our decision to take this project to thenext stage."

The park will be aimed at children between the ages of 2 and 12 and willincorporate millions of the colorful bricks in its design. It will alsoadd significantly to the entertainment opportunities in Japan's alreadycrowded theme-park sector.

Chiba Prefecture, just to the east of Tokyo, hosts the mammoth DisneyLandand DisneySea parks, while Osaka is home to Universal Studios. Elsewhere,Mie Prefecture's Spanish Village has roller coasters and otherattractions, Huis Ten Bosch is a huge recreation of an entire Dutch town,and British Hills offers visitors a taste of life in the United Kingdom.

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