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UNIVERSAL STUDIOS JAPAN
Osaka, Japan
Comcast NBCUniversal
---- THE LATEST BUZZ ----
(12/12/2024) A Better Mine Cart Madness Video Is Posted
(12/3/2024) See the Donkey Kong Mine-Cart Madness POV from Universal Studios Japan
(11/27/2024) Universal Studios Japan Shows Off Entry To Donkey Kong Country
(11/12/2024) Universal Studios Japan Shows Off Donkey Kong Country and Sets Opening Date
Ride Rehabs - These dates are not guaranteed to be 100% accurate as refurbishments are subject to change.
Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man - CLOSED FOREVER on Jan. 22, 2024
Jurassic Park: The Ride - NOW CLOSED through to at least mid-2025
Space Fantasy - The Ride - NOW CLOSED through Jan. 25, 2025
Freeze Ray Sliders - Jan. 8, 2025 through Jan. 11, 2025
Elmo’s Go-Go Skateboard - Jan. 28, 2025 through Feb. 19, 2025
Jaws - Feb 25 through May 19
Moppy’s Balloon Trip - Feb. 25 through Mar 19
Hollywood Dream: Backdrop - Jan. 26, 2025 through Mar. 23, 2025
Hollywood Dream: The Ride - Feb. 5 through Feb 24
 Park News - (8/20/2024) Universal Studios Japan will offer a unique experience for one night only to enhance their Halloween Horror Nights fun. A special event that is sure to make most of the fans of the US parks jealous, for one night only, on Friday, October 18th, guests coming to visit USJ for Halloween Horror Nights can enter the park at 3pm… and stay in the park until the event ends at 5am the next morning.
Tickets for the limited access one-night only event are said to be selling for 12,000 yen, which is just under $81 US dollars.
(8/14/2024) Universal Studios Japan will be showing Chainsaw Man a little more love at Halloween Horror Nights. In addition to the previously announced temporary attraction, “Chainsaw Man: The Chaos 4-D” the park will also be offering a special Chainsaw Man themed audio track on the park’s Hollywood Dream roller coaster in both forward and backwards (Backdrop) trains called “Kick Back”. I believe this may be the theme song from the intro of the anime show.
(7/6/2024) Universal Studios Japan has announced the details for this year’s Halloween Horror Nights event. As we’ve seen before from USJ, some of the promoted events will be sort of street party experiences…sort of like a scare zone, but sometimes with music and dancing, depending on the theme.
This year’s even will include “Street Zombies” and “Dance Zombie”, with both items featuring someone named Ado, described as a guard captain fighting zombies at one and as a singer in another. I’m honestly not sure if they are one and the same or not. The party side continues with a Hami-Kuma themed “Shout It Out Party”.
On the more serious attraction side, the previously mentioned Chainsaw Man themed attraction was confirmed to be a new 4D theater attraction called “Chainsaw Man: The Chaos 4-D”. Other HHN attractions will include: Biohazard: Night of Heroes, Chucky’s Carnival of Chaos, Ado x Hollywood Dream - The Ride, and don’t forget the Death Eaters will be roading the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
That’s about it however, which seems like a light schedule compared to some previous Halloween Horror Night events from years past, unless there are still future announcements to come. Otherwise, this year’s HHN seems to be more Party and less Frights.
(6/22/2024) Universal Studios Japan has created a large number of temporary attractions at the park themed to various Japanese Anime shows, but according to a new press release Universal is now working to bring the character, Chainsaw Man, to life. No details have been releaed about exactly what kind of attraction this will be, but given that the timeline says it will open this Fall, we can only assume the gory-nature of Chainsaw Man will make it a perfect fit for the park’s Halloween Horror Nights event list!
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(4/7/2024) Universal Studios Japan was in the news this weekend, as the park announced plans to double the number of “foreign” employees in the park in order to increase the number of their staff members who can assist with multilingual services. Through various work visa programs the intent to is to hire more staff from neighboring countries like Taiwan or South Korea who also have Japanese-language skills.
(12/15/2023) Riders on the Flying Dinosaur roller coaster (B&M Flyer) at Universal Studios Japan got stuck for a time near the top of the lift hill. After being unable to restart the coaster in a timely fashion, the staff determined the best course of action was to unload the riders from the train and lead them down the evacuation staircase
If you’ve ever ridden a B&M Flyer and wondered to yourself just how this is actually accomplished that high in the air, with nothing under the rider, then today is the day you get to see it in action. CNN posted a video clip of the evacuation on Threads where you can see footage of the mobile-evac platform attached to the lift hill in action, sliding up under the riders giving them somewhere to climb down from once the crews release the restraints. I just wish there was better footage from other angles, as I’m sure an evac from a Flying coaster in this manner is awkward as can be since the riders are positioned in a lying down pose, but the park reported that all 32 riders were safely returned to the ground without incident.
(11/26/2023) According to posts from Universal Studios Japan, two Demon Slayer themed attractions plus merchandise and food specials will come to the park in early 2024. This includes the “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba XR Ride ~Mugen Train” experience that will take place on the park’s Space Fantasy indoor spinning coaster. The attraction will combine the motion of the coaster with a headset guests will wear providing “360-degree VR images” during the experience. Look for this to take place from Feb. 1, 2024 through to June 9, 2024.
Meanwhile “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba” will take place on the Hollywood Dream roller coaster by adding an enhanced audio track for the ride experience from April 25, 2024 through to June 9, 2024.
For those wondering, currently the park’s Space Fantasy indoor coaster attraction is featuring another themed overlay through to Jan. 8, 2024 called “Sadako’s Curse”.
(11/22/2023) Things are about to get a little odd at Universal Studios Japan in January. In addition to Spider-Man closing forever on Jan. 22, 2024, some posts on Twitter are now saying that the park will be shutting down the Jaws attraction for an unknown period of time for some kind of refurbishment starting on Jan. 9, 2024.
Keep in mind that the park already closed down the Jurassic Park River Adventure back in September (and it will stay closed until sometime in 2025), in addition to the permanent closures of Terminator 2:3D and Backdraft, plus other assorted attractions like Space Fantasy and the removal of the Snoopy’s Great Race family coaster inside Snoopy’s Sound Stage Adventure.
The amount of work that will be taking place in the park to update and replace existing attractions is somewhat staggering, especially as future replacements really have not been announced yet. The only officially confirmed new attraction in the works right now is the Donkey Kong coaster expansion for Super Nintendo World.
(6/3/2023) Universal Studios Japan may seem a little smaller these days. Following the announcement that the park will close the Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man ride on Jan. 22, 2023, the park also confirmed the permanent closure of two more long-time attractions. Terminator 2: 3D and Backdraft have now both been confirmed as being closed for good. Technically both attractions shut down back in 2020 due to the COVID-19 Pandemic and apparently never reopened.
While I did hear that T2:3D never reopened, for some reason I thought I had heard at one point that Backdraft did reopen for a brief period of time, but I can not verify that. Regardless, both attractions are now confirmed as being closed for good. Location wise, T2:3D and Backdraft are located near, but on opposite sides, of the Spider-Man attraction.
No rumors have presented themselves yet for what might replace either attraction, but the former T2 theater building in the Hollywood park was re-purposed into that park’s Despicable Me ride, while the original T2 building in the Orlando park was transformed into the fantastic “The Bourne Stuntacular” attraction. Given how amazing the tech and performances are in the Borne attraction, I wouldn’t be surprised if they tried to come up with a similar concept in Japan, though perhaps with a different IP.
The Backdraft attraction fits inside a large soundstage building that sits next door to the USJ’s Despicable Me Minion Mayhem attraction. In Hollywood that park’s Backdraft soundstage was removed and replaced by the Transformers: The Ride attraction, though given the proximity and popularity of the Minions characters, perhaps a future Minions attractions may be under consideration, not unlike the Villain-Con: Minion Blast attraction that will open soon in Orlando.
Oh… if all this wasn’t enough, yet another attraction will be closing for a long-term refurbishment this fall. Confirmed by the park’s website, Jurassic Park: The Ride will be shutting down “September 4, 2023 - Indefinitely”. While the “Indefinately” part is likely to mean that they just don’t know when the work will be finished, we are hearing rumors that Jurassic Park: The Ride may not reopen until Late 2024 to Early 2025. The last time one of the sister Jurassic Park attractions closed for a massive 12-18 month refurbishment, was when the Hollywood park updated their version to become Jurassic World: The Ride.
I’m not saying that a IP update is coming just yet, as the Orlando park has been hesitant to update their own version of JP, even though the update done to the Hollywood ride has proven to be very popular. That said… with the Jurassic World trilogy now complete and the studio reluctant to confirm any future plans to expand upon the franchise any further, it may be hard to tell what kind of future the “Jurassic” IP may have within Universal Studios Japan.
Regardless, before too long the backside of Universal Studios Japan is going to seem a lot more empty for the next couple of years.
Universal Cool Japan 2024 - (1/27/2024) Universal Studios Japan has posted the operating dates for the different experiences being offered for Universal Cool Japan 2024. While all three (Detective Conan World, My Hero Academia The Real 4-D and the Monster Hunter USJ Festival area will all open to guests on March 1, 2024, the Conan and Monster Hunter areas will end on June 30, 2024. My Hero Academia The Real 4-D however is slated to remain open through to August 14, 2024.
(12/11/2023) Universal Studios Japan has announced an upcoming first-time collaboration between the park and the animated property, “My Hero Academia”. No details have been released just yet about what form this will take, other than it will open on March 1, 2024.
Meanwhile the returning Universal Cool Japan 2024 event taking place from Mar. 1, 2024 through June 30, 2024 will also feature attractions: Detective Conan: The World and “Monster Hunter USJ Festival” (to celebrate the IPs 20th Anniversary).
2024 - Detective Conan 4-D Live Show: Jewel Under the Starry Sky - Now Open - (3/23/2024) According to MSN, the new “Detective Conan 4-D Live Show: Jewel Under the Starry Sky” attraction that just opened on Friday at Universal Studios Japan is actually “the first pemanent attraction at USF featuring a Japanese anime series.” From the look of things, this attraction has been set up inside the park’s former Terminator 2: 3-D attraction theater, and will continue to use that venue’s 3D projection screen as well as live-actors who travel both on-stage and through the theater audience, while certain moments are emphasised through the use of the theaters existing 4D effects system, used to blow smoke or add splashes of water on the audience.
2024 - Donkey Kong Country - (12/12/2024) A better looking video showing off the new Mine Cart Madness roller coaster at Universal Studios Japan can be seen below.
(12/3/2024) A quick spoiler warning, but the Donkey Kong themed Mine-Cart Madness coaster at Universal Studios Japan has soft opened ahead of the official grand opening on Dec. 11th, and a POV video of the ride experience can be found below.
As far as I know, the version under construction at Epic Universe will be a clone of the Japanese original version.
(11/27/2024) While the new Donkey Kong Country expansion to Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios Japan won't be ready to open until December 11th, the park did unveil the new entrance portal to the expansion land. Follow the link to check it out.
(11/12/2024) Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto was on hand at Universal Studios Japan this week to announce that the new Donkey Kong Country themed expansion to Super Nintendo World, including the highly anticipated Mine Cart Madness coaster, will finally open to the public on December 11st, 2024.
In the video Miyamoto-san takes us all on a tour of the new land to show off the interactive games and features, a peek at the themed food items, exclusive gift items and a peek at the new Mine Cart Madness queue (which features a Cranky Kong animatronics) and ride as well! Fun note, the station appears to use moving walkways to speed up the loading process and keep the mine carts in constant motion through the station.
(4/20/2024) An official post from Universal Studios Japan online has confirmed that the opening of Donkey Kong Country, which was expected to take place this Spring will now be delayed until “late 2024”. Since the expansion land has only one mainline attraction, the unique “Boom Coaster” system developed specifically for Donkey Kong Country, then we can only assume that any issues causing the delay are related to the roller coaster attraction.
It’s interesting to note that a clone of the roller coaster is also under construction within the new Epic Universe theme park in Orlando. Like the Osaka version, the Orlando version has also begun making test runs. Before now the Japanese version was set to open this Spring, so the themeing of course in Japan is essentially close to being finished, which would technically set it apart from the Orlando version.
With this in mind, it is always possible that perrthaps the delay in Japan has been an issue with the theming. For example, maybe a major special effect wasn’t working correctly and needed to be reworked. Another idea is that it could be a ride envelope issue, where a piece of a themeing was perhaps too close to the cars as they passed by. Worse case scenario however is that perhaps a fault was found with the ride system itself, which wouldn’t be surprising since it is a prototype after all. The best way to tell how serious the issue is will be to monitor the Orlando ride to see if they continue to test it or if all testing suddenly stops in Orlando as well.
(4/7/2024) New footage showing off the Donkey Kong coaster testing at Universal Studios Japan has surfaced on YouTube this week. Shot from a distance with a powerful lens, we get a peek at the cars navigating a few different sections of the track. The whole video is 10 minutes long and locks down the camera to focus on different parts of the ride at first for prolonged periods of time, so feel free to scan around a bit to find sections of action that you like.
After a couple of minutes of that, they go inside the park to try and get views of the ride from the ground level, for example the top of the temple structure can currently be seen over the trees from within the Wizarding World, though I have a feeling those trees will eventually block that view as they grow.
(2/24/2024) A fantastic bit of unofficial fan animation has been posting giving off a great preview of how the new Donkey Kong Country roller coaster ride is expected to look and feel to the riders. Check it out below!
(1/14/2024) Ahead of the official opening of Donkey Kong Country at Universal Studios Japan this Spring the park is taking to the streets of Tokyo, Nagoya and Fukuoka to host “Play Wild!” special events. Those who participate in these special interactive game events “will have a chance to win a special Donkey Kong Country early bird” experience to visit the land before the official opening. If you happen to be in any of these areas, you can see how you can apply to participate in the Play Wild events at the official website.
(12/29/2023) The new Donkey Kong coaster at Universal Studios Japan was spotted making a test run as a camera was recording while flying past the park in a helicopter. You can catch the very short clip of it in action in the tweet below and more footage can be seen in the YouTube video below that.
(12/22/2023) Universal Studios Japan has posted a new video promotion for the Donkey Kong Country expansion opening in Spring 2024 at the park. Check it out below!
(12/10/2023) Universal Studios Japan has confirmed that the new Donkey Kong Country themed expansion to Super Nintendo World will be ready to open in Spring 2024.
(8/27/22) I believe the layout should be exactly the same as the one I broke down that is coming to Universal’s Epic Universe, so I’m going to copy all that information below from that report. In addition to that however, a few construction pictures of the new coaster project being added onto Super Nintendo Land in Japan can be seen over at ThemeparX.
Construction in Japan is obviously much further along than what we’ve seen for the Orlando version, but visually the layout does appear to be the same. The basic Golden Temple structure is up, along with the lift hills, the enclosed second structure that will be home to the dark cave-like section of the ride, plus you can see the concrete poured that will hold the water splash near the end of the ride across the way.
For now, if you want to see a full breakdown of what the ride’s experience may involve, scene by scene, make the jump over to Screamscape’s official report about the version going up at Universal’s Epic Universe in Orlando, FL.
(12/15/21) In a set of new photos posted to WDWNT, you can see the yellow supports and track pieces for the new Donkey Kong coaster being put together at Universal Studios Japan.
(9/29/21) Universal Studios Japan has confirmed our long standing rumor that an expansion to Super Nintendo World themed to Donkey Kong is officially on the way and set to open in 2024. “To further immerse guests into Nintendo’s well-known series of games, Universal Studios Japan will expand the land to include a new area themed after Donkey Kong. The new area will bring to life the world of one of Nintendo’s most beloved games and feature a roller coaster, interactive experiences, themed merchandise and food –and all the fun and excitement of SUPER NINTENDO WORLD. Guests will feel like they are playing inside the world of Donkey Kong as they take a walk on the wild side through the lush jungles where Donkey Kong and his friends live. The new area is set to open in 2024.”
They released one new piece of concept art that shows off a small version of the Donkey Kong themed jungle area next to the existing Super Nintendo World and it looks pretty much just like the artwork and model photos that have been leaked thus far.
2025 - Jurassic Park / World - (9/4/2023) Jurassic Park: The Ride at Universal Studios Japan is now closed to undergo a massive renovation to the attraction. While the website lists it as being closed “Indefinately” there is also a note claiming that they expect to complete the work on the attraction “around early 2025.”
No details about what is happening have been announced yet, but many expect to see the attraction undergo a similar transformation like the Hollywood counterpart and become another “Jurassic World” attraction, rather than “Jurassic Park”.
2025/2026 - Snoopy Sound Stage Update - (11/11/2023) According to an update Universal Studios Japan is expected to begin removing the park’s indoor kiddie coaster, Snoopy’s Great Race. The small coaster closed down with the rest of the park in 2020 during the first wave of the pandemic, but unlike the rest of the park, Snoopy’s Great Race never reopened and was removed from the website long ago.
Digging a little deeper Universal Studios Japan website has confirmed that they will be temporarily closing the entire Snoopy’s Sound Stage Adventure building on Nov. 13th to begin a “Major Renovation” of the attraction. With the removal of the coaster inside, this will open up a large amount of space to allow for future new attraction development.
2025/2026 - Pokeman or Detective Pikachu Dark Ride - Rumor - (1/17/2024) It’s hard to believe it, but in just a few short days the Adventures of Spider-Man will close forever at Universal Studios Japan. While the park has yet to announce what will replace it, the adventures of your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man will all come to a sudden end on Monday, January 22, 2024.
(5/17/2023) Universal Studios Japan has confirmed that The Adventures of Spider-Man ride will close forever at the end of January 22, 2024. As the attraction first opened in January 2004, it sounds like Universal is running it though to the very end of their current IP licensing agreement. Now before you argue and say that Universal has a never-ending agreement to use the Marvel characters, that agreement is only for Universal’s use of the characters in the eastern half of North America, and was really only used in the Islands of Adventure theme park in Florida. The agreement to use the Spider-Man IP for the attraction in Japan had an entirely separate contract, and only for the IPs used in the Spider-Man attraction itself.
While nothing was said about what might replace it, the rumor we reported back in 2021 still holds water… that Spider-Man was expected to close down sometime in 2024 in order to make way for some kind of new ride with a Pokemon or Pikachu theme about 18 to 24 months later.
(1/22/2023) While sorting through a large number of open positions that Universal Creative is hiring for currently, I noticed an interesting trend. A number of the open positions involve working on an unknown project in Orlando through 2024 and then require “relocation to Osaka, Japan for over a year.”
This essentially confirms that something big is planned to open in 2025/2026 at Universal Studios Japan, and based on the previous rumors we’ve been hearing since 2021, this will very likely involve the closure of that park’s Adventures of Spider-Man ride. While nothing has been confirmed yet, the most likely scenario would see Spider-Man closed in 2024 to be transformed into an all new experience 18-24 months later.
Based on all the previous rumors, the new attraction is expected to be a Pokemon or Detective Pikachu themed dark ride experience.
(10/8/21) According to press release, Universal Studios Japan has officially entered into a long-term partnership with The Pokemon Company “that will immerse guests into the world of Pokemon with with innovative technology and creativity beginning in 2022.“
So what exactly does this mean? If you recall, back in May we posted a report that the park was likely preparing to retire their popular Adventures of Spider-Man dark ride, and if the rumors hold true, it would evolve into a new Pokemon themed attraction. While 2022 is to fast of the timeline to transform the dark ride into something Pokemon themed, especially since it hasn’t even closed yet, I suspect we’ll see Pokemon added to the park in some other new way as a slow build up to the eventual announcement of the Pokemon themed dark ride project. Given how rapidly the park has been able to add various highly themed temporary attractions over the years as part of the Universal Cool Japan series of events, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some of this magic put in place throughout 2022 to add several temporary Pokemon attraction, possibly including an VR overlay on the park’s Space Fantasy indoor coaster.
In the meantime, if you love Spider-Man in Japan, get your last rides in now, before it’s too late!
(5/2/21) Could the days of The Adventures of Spider-Man ride at Universal Studios Japan be numbered? According to an insightful article from ThemeParkUniversity, there is a chance that a new attraction with a Pokemon theme could possibly replace this Japanese clone of what is easily one of the best dark rides ever created.
Unfortunately, Universal may not have a choice when it comes to keeping your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man in Japan. According to TPU, unlike the deal Universal has in Florida to keep Spider-Man and his Marvel brethren in Universal’s Islands of Adventure theme park as long as Universal is willing to pay the licensing fees, the deal in Japan is not so broad. We don’t know all the terms of course, but we do know that the deal was only to allow the Japanese park to use Spider-Man and the associated villains as part of the existing Adventures of Spider-Man ride.
Typically when these kind of theme park IP licensing deals are made, they typically come in 10-year terms, almost always with a clause that will allow the park to automatically renew the deal for a second 10-year term at a pre-determined price. We are talking about the construction of a multi-million dollar attraction that is meant to have a lifespan of at least 20 years or more, so this only makes sense. There is then usually verbiage to allow the park to negotiate terms for further expansions as needed, but only if the park and IP-owner can come to an agreement.
In the years that have followed since the creation of the attraction, the IP-owner of Spider-Man (aka: Marvel Comics) has been bought up and swallowed whole by the mighty Disney empire. As such, it is safe to say that Disney is not looking to allow Universal to use the Spider-Man IP any longer than necessary. With the opening of Disney’s first “Avengers Campus” land in California this Summer, that includes Disney’s very own Spider-Man themed dark ride attraction, one that they could very well clone for the Tokyo Disney Resort in the future.
Returning our eye to Universal Studios Japan, the Adventures of Spider-Man dark ride opened in that park in January of 2004, which means the park’s IP license for the character and ride is likely to expire around 2023/2024. So with only 2 or 3 years of life left in it, it does make sense that they would be trying to finalize plans to repurpose the popular attraction, especially one with an expensive and re-programmable ride system that could be repurposed easily for virtually any new theme.
While previously, a popular line of thought was that Universal Studios Japan could possibly retheme the Spider-Man ride to become Transformers themed, I’m not so sure that the Transformers brand is as popular in Japan as it has been in the rest of the world. Meanwhile Universal’s new relationship with Nintendo is definitely one they would want to expand upon, and finding a way to “transform” the ride to become a new Pokemon adventure ride only makes sense.
Regardless, the loss of Spider-Man in Japan will still be a very sad day indeed.
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