Oriental Land Co. is debating lowering admission prices at both Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea. This shares details of the press conference during which OLC made this announcement, along with our commentary about the why of the decrease–so read on before you Walt Disney World and Disneyland fans grab your pitchforks and declare that the “US parks would never!”
OLC company President Wataru Takahashi announced on Friday that the Tokyo Disney Resort owner and operator could lower ticket prices for its theme parks. This is attributed to more Japanese people cutting discretionary spending due to inflation. As a result, OLC “will likely consider” lowering prices or adjusting the price range for Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea.
Prices normally fluctuate in response to projected demand. Tokyo Disney Resort single-day tickets (the only admission type sold) for either of the parks currently cost between 7,900 yen ($55) and 10,900 yen ($75) per adult. Lower prices are available for children, juniors, and guests with disabilities.
Takahashi’s remark came as Oriental Land considers a large-scale redevelopment of parts of its parks under the company’s long-term business strategy through fiscal 2035. We previously covered the potential Adventureland expansion & redevelopment as well as the Port Discovery expansion & Aquatopia replacement.
Speaking about the company’s cruise ship that is slated to start operating in fiscal 2028, Takahashi, who was appointed president and chief operating officer on April 1, told reporters the company aims to get it “on track.”
He described the cruise ship as “the integration of a theme park and hotel sailing across the ocean,” adding that every passenger will be able to enjoy a show with fewer restrictions like those experienced at theme parks where patrons often must win a seat in a lottery. (Press conference reporting courtesy of Kyodo News.)
Our Commentary
Although unconfirmed by Takahashi, it is our expectation that the price decrease, if it occurs, would mostly happen at the higher end of the spectrum. If anything, we could see the least expensive tickets increasing in price, perhaps bringing the range to 8,500 yen to 9,900 yen.
This stands in contrast to Walt Disney World and Disneyland, which have made every effort to preserve the lower end of their price range for the sake of marketing. Until recently, base price tickets hadn’t increased at Walt Disney World since 2018, with one “little” catch–the lowest rates were (and still are) on a handful of undesirable dates during the off-season at Animal Kingdom. Minor detail.
Although inflation is a persistent issue in advanced economies around the globe, one distinction is that Japanese consumers are incredibly cost-conscious. There’s also the reality that along with inflation, real wages have not increased in Japan as they have in the United States. There are a lot of current and historical explanations as to why this is the case, which are quite fascinating but beyond the scope of this post. To that point, I’d recommend watching this video and googling Japan’s “Lost Decades” (plural).
In any case, one of the big trends we’ve spotted when visiting Tokyo Disney Resort in the last few years is that the most reliable predictor of crowds is ticket prices. But not in the way you might expect!
If you’ve read our Guide for Choosing When to Visit Tokyo Disneyland in 2025, you might already know where this is going. That got a major overhaul this year, removing a section about avoiding weekends at all costs and adding this: “We also strongly suspect price sensitivity was a contributing factor, as we anecdotally experienced heavier congestion and higher wait times on dates when tickets were cheaper last year.”
In other words, attendance and prices are inversely correlated–the best predictor of higher crowds is lower prices. It’s gotten to the point that we have specifically targeted higher-priced days to help avoid crowds, especially Sundays and Mondays. The price difference is often $3 to $7; that’s less than a single Premier Pass, but often more valuable over the course of the day. We would recommend you do the same.
In combing through quarterly financial reports from OLC, it’s not surprising that they’re mulling (one of my “favorite” words to describe the decision-making process in Japan) price decreases. This is because last fiscal year’s attendance fell short of expectations despite the opening of Fantasy Springs.
OLC reported annual attendance of 27.56 million for the 2025 fiscal year, revised down from an initial forecast of 29 million. In other words, they missed the mark by nearly 1.5 million guests. Attendance did increase year-over-year, up from approximately 27.51 million in the last fiscal year. That amounts to a 0.2% increase, which is fairly insignificant considering the $2 billion investment in Fantasy Springs.
For the 2026 fiscal year, OLC is forecasting 28 million visitors to the parks, or modest growth of 1.6%. It’s worth noting that this comes as Japan smashes inbound foreign tourism records on a monthly basis, with 2025 set to be the biggest year–by far–for international tourism, absolutely shattering the prior record, set in 2024. However, the core demographic for TDR is locals–it is more reliant on the local audience than Disneyland in California, and a sharp contrast to Walt Disney World.
OLC attributes these lower results to a few factors. The first is severe heat, which has drastically reduced attendance in the summer. This is especially true among domestic travelers within Japan and repeat visitors. This is such an issue for OLC that they’re exploring weather countermeasures, including the installation of more air-conditioners, shade structures, beverage vending machines, and extended summer programming.
Second, there was a larger-than-expected impact of rainy weather. I don’t doubt this to some extent, as we enjoyed some less busy rainy days, but this seems pretty negligible. Japanese guests are used to rainy weather and come armed with umbrellas. A little precipitation doesn’t clear out the crowd the way it does in California (it’s more like Florida in this one regard).
Third, there was a decrease due to the end of the Tokyo Disneyland 40th Anniversary celebration. With that aforementioned local audience, nostalgia is a powerful pull, as is entertainment–that celebration had both, plus special souvenirs and food. All big draws with Tokyoites.
Finally, there’s a sharper than anticipated decline in travel demand on the back of a slowdown in post-pandemic “revenge spending.” This is hardly surprising, as Walt Disney World and Disneyland have seen this exact scenario play out in the U.S. parks. The only difference is the timeline being delayed due to Japan’s slower and more cautious approach to reopening.
Regardless of the reasons, Tokyo Disney Resort fell short of expectations last year and the fiscal 2026 year isn’t looking much better. Still below the target for last year by 1 million guests.
With that said, not all timeframes have been impacted equally. Last year, there was a lull in the lead-up to Fantasy Springs as locals and tourists alike postponed visits until the new port-of-call opened. This made for a slower few months pre-Fantasy Springs, as compared to the prior year. That wasn’t much of a surprise to OLC, per its quarterly reports.
As noted, last summer was slower than expected due to extreme heat despite the opening of Fantasy Springs. We question whether this is entirely due to the severe weather–Tokyo has had some really hot summers in the last ~5 years, and it stands to reason all would’ve been (more or less) equally impacted. We strongly suspect guests also stayed away in the opening months of Fantasy Springs, fearing colossal crowds.
Instead, we strongly suspect that heavy attendance showed up in the fall during the Halloween and Christmas seasons. We “strongly suspect” this because we experienced some of the worst “feels like” crowds in over a decade of visiting TDR.
About the only time I can recall that was worse was visiting during a sold out weekend over Christmas 2013–back during the 30th Anniversary. (That visit is the one that made us swear off weekends for a long, long time.)
To that point, we had an awful experience attempting to enter Fantasy Springs during the holiday season, which almost soured the day in Tokyo DisneySea for us. You can read Why Disney’s #1 Park is Getting 1-Star Reviews for a full recap, but suffice to say, we are far from alone in having these issues. This came after pretty smooth and seamless experiences with Fantasy Springs during the (slower) summer season.
While I’m not surprised that OLC is talking about reducing ticket costs (or at least, the price range), it’s worth noting that this is just one of many levers they can pull. One thing they’ve already started doing is target international “whales.” (That’s probably you.) Vacation Packages and various upcharges have been a boost for the bottom line, but not enough since foreigners are a very small slice of the pie.
Another simpler option would be bringing back multi-day tickets. I’m honestly shocked that these sales are still suspended, and cannot fathom what the rationale is for not restoring 2-day, 3-day, and 4-day tickets. It’s low-hanging fruit, and such an obvious thing to do. Maybe they’re still mulling it. (To their credit, they are testing Park Hopper tickets, but the pricing is prohibitive–it’s an awful option unless you only have one day.)
The final lever is the nuclear option: bringing back Annual Passes. This is an inevitability at some point, but I really hope TDR builds a reservation system, gets better about blockouts–or does something to fix the overcrowding caused by APs. Once Annual Passports return, Saturdays and Sundays will instantly be the busiest days of the week once again, irrespective of single-day ticket prices.
Finally, before you start salivating over OLC being more “fair” about prices, keep in mind that higher wage-earning Americans are not the target demographic of theme parks in Japan. This is something we explain in Is It Cheaper to Visit Tokyo Disney Resort Than Walt Disney World? (Spoiler: yes, it is.)
It’s worth reiterating and underscoring that median wages and household income are significantly higher in the United States than Japan. As is probably obvious, the target demographic for each destination is domestic tourists, not international ones, so local incomes make a big difference in pricing. Another is the strength of the respective currencies. Honestly, this is the difference-maker right now in a comparison of costs at Tokyo Disney Resort vs. Walt Disney World.
This is really a story of the U.S. dollar versus the Japanese yen. Thus far in 2025, the dollar has retreated from its historic highs due to tariff uncertainty, but the yen is still only around the 144 level against the U.S. dollar (that’s as compared to 154:1 last year). To put this into perspective for those are are unfamiliar with traveling to Japan or foreign currency, a good/normal rule of thumb used to be a 100:1 exchange rate. This is why so many Americans are flocking to Japan in the first place.
Beyond all of that, there’s the reality that spending continues to be resilient among Americans. At the risk of stating the obvious, Walt Disney World and Disneyland aren’t going to lower prices in the face of robust demand. The Key to Disneyland, a gigantic piece of plastic with a pin inside, sold out despite a massive price tag. Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party below past the $200 barrier…and October 31 sold out in record time. You get the idea.
Part of this is increasing real wages and other factors discussed here. But there’s also the reality that there’s divergent psychology between American and Japanese consumers, with the latter being far more frugal–to such an extent that many Japanese businesses have refrained from passing along inflation to consumers for fear of alienating shoppers and losing market share.
All of that is beyond the scope of this post, but the salient point is that this is yet another of many big differences between Walt Disney World and Tokyo Disney Resort. At both destinations, price increases stop and the decreases start when guests collectively say “enough is enough.” Here’s hoping that continues to happen at TDR to the point that free FastPass fully returns. That’s probably wishful thinking, but honestly, it wouldn’t shock me.
Planning a trip to Tokyo Disney Resort? For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Tokyo Disneyland & DisneySea Trip Planning Guide! For more specifics, our TDR Hotel Rankings & Reviews page covers accommodations. Our Restaurant Reviews detail where to dine & snack. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money post. Our What to Pack for Disney post takes a unique look at clever items to take. Venturing elsewhere in Japan? Consult our Ultimate Guide to Kyoto, Japan and City Guide to Tokyo, Japan.
YOUR THOUGHTS
Surprised to hear of a price decrease at one of the Disney Parks? Have you visited Japan in the last couple of years? What was your experience with the strong dollar and weak yen? Even if you visited pre-closure, what did you feel about the value proposition of Tokyo Disney Resort? Pleased with the bang-for-buck you got out of the trip? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
