YOKOHAMA--Plans are in the cards to construct a theme park on the scale of Tokyo Disneyland at a site in this port city next to the capital that was used by the U.S. military for decades, despite objections from local residents.

Yokohama-based Sotetsu Holdings Inc. floated the project with owners and leaseholders of the land that served as the U.S. Naval Support Facility Kamiseya.

The Yokohama city government is keen for the project to go ahead and is expected to move to build new public transportation and improve local infrastructure to enhance the value of the land.

At least 130 billion yen ($1.21 billion) would be invested in the project, the bulk of which would be paid with public funds, analysts said.

At this point, however, it remains uncertain whether Sotetsu Holdings and city authorities can attract a business operator.

The former naval site, which covers about 242 hectares and cuts across Yokohama’s Seya and Asahi wards, was seized by the U.S. Forces after World War II and returned to owners and leaseholders in 2015.

About 45 percent of the site, mostly agricultural land and grassland, is owned by individuals, with the central government owning another 45 percent. About nine percent is owned by the city.

A joint council consisting of 240 or so landowners and leaseholders agreed with the city government to develop 125 hectares of the site as a “zone” for tourism.

Sotetsu Holdings in April 2019 pitched the idea to the joint council that “developing tourism through a theme park is the best possible plan,” according to an internal document obtained by The Asahi Shimbun.

The company said it hired a foreign research company to conduct a commissioned study and concluded that developing a supersized theme park is a viable plan because of its proximity to the Tokyo metropolitan area and ability to attract residents and tourists.

The joint council then decided to focus discussions on developing a theme park, according to city officials.

Sotetsu Holdings was named as the council’s “discussion partner” in October 2019.

In December of that year, Yokohama Mayor Fumiko Hayashi declared a policy to “develop complex attraction facilities centering around a theme park.”

The city will construct zones to promote agriculture and other projects with the aim of creating a town development that can attract 15 million visitors a year to the area.

A leading U.S. movie company is on the list of candidates to operate the theme park, according to city officials.

Once built, the theme park is expected to attract between 6.5 million and 13 million visitors a year, similar in scale to Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, and Universal Studios Japan in Osaka.

The city government also plans to hold a garden and horticultural exhibition from March to September 2027, to promote the area's development.

The central government in January designated the area as a special zone for restructuring, which proved to be a major incentive for city authorities to accelerate work on the project.

Even though the Tomei Expressway passes near the former naval site, the city is expected to authorize construction of a new transportation system that would connect the Sotetsu Line's Seya Station to the theme park, 2 kilometers away.

If things go as planned, the theme park will partially open around the end of the exhibition, officials said.

The city government is expected to spend 70 billion yen on the new transportation system and 60 billion yen on improving land infrastructure, according to an estimate.

However, residents near the proposed construction site remain opposed to the project.

“What the landowners and leaseholders want has been given priority over residents’ voices, and that is not right,” said one.

“I really hope the city and the developer will reflect on how local people feel about the project,” said another.

Yuji Yamaguchi, a professor of tourism studies at J.F. Oberlin University, expressed doubts about the ability of the development to rival that of Tokyo Disneyland or Tokyo DisneySea. 

“I haven’t seen a new large-scale theme park built anywhere in the world that has the ability to pull in mass customers like Disney does," Yamaguchi said. "The government will have to provide a massive amount of support to help the sale of the land plots and set up leasing conditions smoothly.”