The story
Founded by Chiharu Kawasaki in 1960.1
Oriental Land was founded in 1960. The company was developing Maihama, an area of land in Urayasu that was created through land reclamation. Two years later, the company contacted Disney about building a theme park. OLC was also building a few shopping centers in Chiba Prefecture.
In 1979, Oriental Land and Walt Disney Productions agreed to build the theme park. Tokyo Disneyland opened on April 15, 1983 on 200 acres in Maihama. The company borrowed $1.4 billion for Disneyland which they paid off in three years.
Disney announced in November 1995 the building of Tokyo DisneySea to be owned by OLC next to the Tokyo Disneyland. Oriental and Disney signed the DisneySea licensing agreement in November 1997 with the theme park to open in 2001 at a cost of $2.6 billion. In May 1999, the company sold two sets of bonds, $200 million in quake bonds and $406 million of bonds to fund DisneySea. DisneySea opened on September 4, 2001 at only $200 million over budget.
In 2000, OLC formed Ikspiari Co., Ltd. to run Ikspiari.
Even though the Disney Stores maintained strong sales, mounting cost of sales and operation and the loss of key executives who had driven the Disney Stores to success led The Walt Disney Company to convert the Disney Stores into a licensed operation. The Japanese stores were sold to the company in April 2002 and placed into Retail Networks Co., Ltd. subsidiary.
In October 2008, Oriental Land announced that it and Disney had shelved plans for a new Disney complex in a major Japanese city. The company and Disney had spent more than a year studying an urban-style amusement facility for 2010 or later, but ended planning due to low profits expected versus the investment. The firm said it would continue to explore possibilities for a new business, which might not involve Disney.
Oriental Land announced an agreement that it would sell Retail Networks Co., Ltd., its Japanese Disney Stores, back to The Walt Disney Company. Disney took over beginning on March 31, 2010, Retail Networks Co., Ltd., Oriental Land Company subsidiary owning the Disney Stores in Japan. OLC's hotel subsidiary, Milial Resort Hotels Co., Ltd. purchased on March 29, 2013 the Brighton Corporation, another hotel company.
On August 31, 2015, Create Restaurants Holdings Inc. fully acquired RC Japan Co., Ltd. from Oriental Land for 65 million yen.
From Wikipedia’s article on Oriental Land Company, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4