Tokyo Disneyland looks like Disney in every detail. But The Walt Disney Company does not own it, and it does not run it.
It does not even own a share of the company that does.
Tokyo Disneyland and its sister park, Tokyo DisneySea, belong to a Japanese company called Oriental Land. It uses Disney's name, characters and designs under a license, and it pays Disney for the right. Of all the Disney resorts in the world, it is the only one whose operator has no ownership ties to Disney at all.
On January 6, 2026, its two parks welcomed their 900 millionth guest.
Oriental Land was never meant to build a theme park. It was founded in 1960 to do something much plainer: turn a stretch of shallow sea into dry land.
And before it could do that, one man had to talk a town full of fishermen into giving up their sea.