A Bottle in His Hand

Urayasu, Japan. 1960.

Oriental Land was set up by two companies, Keisei Electric Railway and Mitsui Real Estate. Its job was to reclaim the shallow waters off Urayasu, a fishing town on Tokyo Bay.

At the start, the company had three employees. Only one of them, Masatomo Takahashi, was actually doing the work.

Before anything could be built, Urayasu's fishermen had to give up their fishing rights. They were known as a tough crowd, and the talks were expected to drag on.

Takahashi never talked down to them. He kept coming back, a sake bottle in his hand, and patiently won them over.

The deal was done in about six months. In 1964, the sea off Urayasu began turning into land.