Tokyo Disneyland set for Friday reopening

Tokyo Disneyland is to reopen on Friday (15th April), more than a month after Japan's 12th March earthquake caused its closure.
Although the park was not badly damaged by the 9.0-magnitude earthquake, Tokyo Disneyland operator the Oriental Land Co had to close the park due power shortages caused by damaged power plants and disruptions to electricity supply.
From Friday, the theme park will run on shortened hours until 6 pm daily, Oriental Land said in a statement to Tokyo's stock exchange yesterday.
The statement also advised that Tokyo DisneySea theme park will be opened "as soon as possible," without providing a date.
The month long closure of the two parks may have cut the company's revenue by about 21 billion yen ($249 million), according to Bloomberg calculations using data from the company. Sales at the theme parks, which generate 82% of Oriental Land's revenue, may suffer during summer as power supply is regulated to avoid a large-scale blackout.
Toshihiro Nagahama, chief economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute Inc. in Tokyo explained that "the reopening of the Disney Resort symbolises the start of reconstruction in Japan."
The Tokyo Disney Resort, a vast complex including Disneyland and the DisneySea theme park are among the most popular theme parks in the world. They attracted more than 25.3 million visitors in the 12 months that ended 31st March (an average of 70,000 guests per day) ï¾ with numbers affected by closures over the last 19 days of the year.
Guests average spending is around 10,000 yen per visitor according to Oriental Land spokesperson Hiroshi Kitamura.
The closure has also affected nearby hotels, restaurants and shopping centres.
Earthquake damage at the Disney resorts was largely in its parking lots.
Oriental Land executives fear attendances at the reopened parks may be curtailed by the phenomenon of 'jishuku', or self-restraint, as some Japanese feel it's unseemly to overtly partake in leisure activities at this time of national crisis.