The Helicopter

Oriental Land's pitch was run by a producer named Teiichiro Hori, and he left nothing to chance.

On the bus between stops, he learned what each Disney executive liked to drink, and the right cocktails kept arriving.

Then he chartered a helicopter. He flew the team over Urayasu to show them how close it was to the heart of Tokyo.

On the way, the helicopter circled the Shinjuku Mitsui Building, then the tallest building in Japan. Hori pointed to it. "Mitsui, the company that built this building," he told them, "will build your park."

Oriental Land won Disney over. But the hardest fight was still ahead, and it was inside the company itself.