Hiroto Izumi, an assistant to the Prime Minister, and Tsuyoshi Morioka, a marketing chief of the Universal Studios Japan along with Okinawa Prefecture Deputy Governor Mitsuo Ageda visited the Ocean Expo Park in Motobu on May 30th to assess the viability of the area as a sit for the planned USJ Okinawa theme park.

According to Izumi, the USJ will ultimately make the decision about the potential site of the planned theme park, while he has cleared the Ocean Expo Park as one of the potential sites. The company has previously been in talks with Nago City about the possibility of building the theme park at the Nago NeoPark area.

In addition, Izumi stated that if needed for the development of Okinawa, the government would like to consider advancing a regulatory reform.  This is the first time for a government official to state positively that the Ocean Expo Park is one of the potential sites for the USJ theme park.

Morioka declined to say anything specific about the USJ plans, stating only, “We have not decided the site yet. This is a very important phase of the planning, so I cannot comment about it.”

Regarding tourism resources in Okinawa, Morioka appraised Okinawa to be the best in the country. Deputy Governor Ageda on his part said, “We would like to deal with any potential problems in this project in cooperation with the Japanese government in order to get the USJ to make a foray to Okinawa.”

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