The chief executive officer of the operator of Universal Studios Japan in Osaka and Okinawa Gov. Takeshi Onaga agreed Friday to cooperate in USJ's plan to open a new theme park in Okinawa Prefecture, USJ officials said.
USJ Co. Chairman and CEO Glenn Gumpel and the governor reached the agreement in their closed-door meeting held at the Okinawa prefectural government office in Naha.
After the meeting, Gumpel told reporters that USJ needs the local government's support for improving transportation infrastructure to open the new theme park.
Tsuyoshi Morioka, a USJ executive who was at the meeting, also said USJ has obtained "in-depth understanding" from the governor.
Morioka said USJ hopes to open the new theme park by the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, while saying USJ has yet to make a final decision on where it will be built.
The state-run Ocean Expo Park in the town of Motobu, northern Okinawa, is seen as among potential locations for the new theme park.
Okinawa hopes the new theme park will help boost the number of visitors to the southern Japanese island prefecture, seeing tourism as a key factor in promoting the local economy.
It had a record 7.17 million visitors from elsewhere in Japan and abroad last fiscal year against the backdrop of a rise in foreign tourists amid the yen's depreciation and an increase in flights at the airport in Okinawa.
The prefectural government has a target of realizing 10 million visitors in fiscal 2021.
The U.S. movie theme park in Osaka, meanwhile, saw a record 12.7 million visitors in fiscal 2014 as its "Harry Potter" area that opened last July and anime-inspired events were particularly popular.
