Walt Disney Attractions Japan is a wholly owned subsidiary of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts

Walt Disney Parks and Resorts

Walt Disney Parks and Resorts is the segment of The Walt Disney Company that conceives, builds, and manages the company's theme parks and holiday resorts, as well as a variety of additional family-oriented leisure enterprises...

, one of four sectors of the American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 entertainment

Entertainment

Entertainment consists of any activity which provides a diversion or permits people to amuse themselves in their leisure time. Entertainment is generally passive, such as watching opera or a movie. Active forms of amusement, such as sports, are more often considered to be recreation...

 conglomerate The Walt Disney Company

The Walt Disney Company

The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...

.

Founded in 1982, a year before the opening of the Tokyo Disneyland

Tokyo Disneyland

is a 115 acre theme park at the Tokyo Disney Resort located in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan, near Tokyo. Its main gate is directly adjacent to both Maihama Station and Tokyo Disneyland Station. It was the first Disney park to be built outside of the United States and opened on April 15, 1983...

 theme park in Chiba

Chiba Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region and the Greater Tokyo Area. Its capital is Chiba City.- History :Chiba Prefecture was established on June 15, 1873 with the merger of Kisarazu Prefecture and Inba Prefecture...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, its purpose was to liaise with The Oriental Land Company

The Oriental Land Company

is a Japanese leisure and tourism corporation headquartered in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan. The company owns the Tokyo Disney Resort in Urayasu. The main shareholders of the company are Keisei Electric Railway and Mitsui Fudosan...

 - the financial owners of Tokyo Disneyland - in all aspects of running and maintaining the theme park.

Activities

• Developing ideas for theme park attractions and expansions with Walt Disney Imagineering
  Walt Disney Imagineering
  Walt Disney Imagineering is the design and development arm of the Walt Disney Company, responsible for the creation and construction of Disney theme parks worldwide...
  
  
• Regularly assessing whether the Tokyo Disney Resort
  Tokyo Disney Resort
  is a theme park and vacation resort located in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan, just east of Tokyo. It is owned and operated by the Oriental Land Company with a license from The Walt Disney Company. The resort opened on April 15, 1983, as a single theme park , but developed into a resort with two theme...
  
   is being maintained to Disney-set specifications
• Acting as the receiver of finances through licensing from the Oriental Land Company
• Approving decisions by the Oriental Land Company involving artistic properties owned by Disney
• Advertising the Tokyo Disney Resort in the United States
  United States
  The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
  
  

Walt Disney Attractions Japan played a major part in the expansion of 2001 from the Tokyo Disneyland theme park to the Tokyo Disney Resort which included an second theme park, Tokyo DisneySea

Tokyo DisneySea

is a 176-acre theme park at the Tokyo Disney Resort located in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan, just outside Tokyo. It opened on September 4, 2001. It is owned by The Oriental Land Company, which licenses the theme from The Walt Disney Company. Tokyo DisneySea attracted an estimated 12 million visitors in...

, two Disney-branded hotels and a shopping, eating and entertainment district, Ikspiari

Ikspiari

is a shopping, dining, and entertainment complex at the Tokyo Disney Resort in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan. Owned and operated by The Oriental Land Company, it is the Japanese equivalent of the Downtown Disney complexes at the Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resorts in the USA, and Disney Village at...

.

Management

Walt Disney Attractions Japan took its name from the former name of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, Walt Disney Attractions. It is headed by Nick Franklin, who also heads International Development at Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, for example scouting for further locations for Disney resorts. Nick Franklin reports to Thomas O. Staggs

Thomas O. Staggs

Thomas O. Staggs is the chairman of the Walt Disney Company's Parks and Resorts division.-Career:Joining Disney in 1990, Staggs rose from his role as a manager of strategic planning to senior vice president of strategic planning and development in 1995...

, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, and to a certain extent, Toshio Kagami

Toshio Kagami

is the Secretary General of The Oriental Land Company.Kagami is also a ceremonial, non-payroll employee of The Walt Disney Company as president of the Tokyo Disney Resort in Japan...

, president of the Oriental Land Company and by default the Tokyo Disney Resort.