Fukui dinosaur museum set to undergo multi-million dollar refurbishment

The Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum in Japan is set to receive a $125 million upgrade as the region's local government aims to boost visitor numbers by 50%.

The museum which was established in 2000, will introduce a new section to offer interactive fossil excavation and replica-making lessons and a video room with 10 metre ceilings in which to display life-size dinosaurs.

The Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum, located in Katsuyama, part of Japan's Honshu island and bordering the Sea of Japan, is one of the leading dinosaur museums in Asia that is renowned for its exhibits of fossil specimens of dinosaurs and paleontological research

Renovations at the Dinosaur Museum are to be completed by 2023 with enlarged exhibition spaces set to make what is already Japan's largest dinosaur museum even larger.

The facility currently displays about 41,000 items in its 15,000 metre² floor space, according to the prefecture.

The local government advises that more than 80% of dinosaur fossils discovered in Japan are dug up in the prefecture.

With the floor space expanded by 5,700 metre², the renovated facility is planned to open in the summer of 2023 following the start of the Hokuriku Shinkansen bullet train serves to Fukui in the spring of that year.

The local government hopes that the annual number of dinosaur museum visitors will hit 1.4 million after the renovation is completed. The current record is 938,000 set in the year ended March 2019.

Foreign language audio guide availability will also be improved.