About two years after it was founded, Oriental Land contacted Disney about building a theme park on the new land.
It was a long shot. At the time, Disney had exactly one park, Disneyland in California. A Disney park outside the United States did not exist.
Filling in the bay took 11 years, until November 1975. Oriental Land was not the only Japanese company chasing Disney, either. Others were working to bring the park to the foothills of Mount Fuji, beneath the most famous mountain in Japan.
Disney's executives came to look. Oriental Land had to convince them that a flat piece of reclaimed land beside a fishing town was the better choice.