NAHA: Junglia Okinawa opened recently in northern Okinawa Island as the first large-scale theme park in Okinawa Prefecture.

Covering an area of about 600,000 square metres, the park recreates a tropical jungle with over 30,000 trees, and it has several outdoor attractions including a dinosaur safari. Leveraging its location, the park aims to attract customers with “two billion people in Asia” as its target.

Junglia, on the border between the village of Nakijin and Nago City, was developed on the site of a former golf course with an investment of about ¥70 billion.

The park features 22 attractions, including Dinosaur Safari, where guests explore a jungle inhabited by animatronic dinosaurs and witness T-Rex attacks; Horizon Balloon, with its panoramic view from a giant hot air balloon at an altitude of 200 metres; and Buggy Voltage, a drive through the jungle with buggies.

The park, also featuring spa facilities and dining options, has an estimated length of stay of about six hours. On the opening day, the reservation-only parking lot that can accommodate 1,126 cars was full, and admission tickets were sold out in advance, according to Junglia.

It says tickets for July are sold out, and no tickets are available for sale at the entrance. Tickets for some days in August are also sold out.

Junglia was planned under the leadership of Katana Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tsuyoshi Morioka, who served as an executive at Universal Studios Japan (USJ) in Osaka and was behind its management restructuring.

Okinawa attracts nearly 10 million tourists annually, but most visitors concentrate in the southern part of the island such as Naha.

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2025