A new theme park with no name recognition opened for business in Okinawa on July 28th. The nature-themed destination hopes to tap into Okinawa’s booming tourism traffic. It also hopes to make a pretty penny off of overseas visitors with its two-tier pricing system. The question is: Will it succeed?
What’s in Junglia Okinawa
Junglia Okinawa advertises itself as a “Power Vacance” (that’s Japanese English for “power vacation”). The new theme park features 22 attractions and shows, including a tree-top adventure, balloon rides, a “dinosaur safari,” bungee and swing rides, as well as water and fireworks shows.
Junglia is located in Nakijin, a village on Okinawa Island with a population of under 10,000 people. The park says it showcases and supports the Yambaru (山原), the forested northern part of Okinawa Island. The Yambaru is host to around 177 species that are considered endangered, such as the Okinawa rail, or Yambaru kuina in Japanese. (The park employs the kuina prominently in its promotional materials.)
Unfortunately, it’s a little hard to tell what parts of Junglia look like from its website. For many of its attraction pages, its parent company, Japan Entertainment, decided to use an AI image generator instead of showing pictures of actual people at the actual park that actually exists.
The English translations on the site also appear machine-translated; outside of “Power Vacance,” cumbersome expressions such as “experience it with your whole body” come off as overly literal translations of the original Japanese.
You can see actual footage of the park in this YouTube news segment from ANN.
1,870 yen more if you’re a tourist
One of the most marked features of Junglia, however, is at the gate.
If you use Junglia’s English-language website, you’re given a price of 8,000 yen for a one-day ticket. (You can also add other options, such as a spa ticket and a Premium pass.) With tax, that comes out to 8,800 yen ($59). Inbound visitors must purchase passes through a third-party site such as Klook or Trip.com.
What the English site doesn’t say is that this is 1,870 yen more than the price if you purchase through the Japanese language ticket site at ticket.junglia.jp. There, the price for locals, including tax, is only 6,930 yen ($47). Buying this ticket requires a Japanese address and phone number. (Sadly, there seems to be no discount specifically for Okinawan residents.)
According to Nikkei, the pricing scheme is the work of Katana Marketing. Katana is run by Morioka Tsuyoshi, who’s known for turning around Universal Studios Japan. The group, recognizing that inbound tourists spend 3x that of domestic tourists, hopes to earn a pretty penny from the price differential.
It may succeed. Okinawa has seen a two-fold increase in tourism since 2024. The park hopes to attract visitors from Taiwan and South Korea, which are just a short four-hour flight away from the main island. Additionally, sites like Niseko show that inbound tourists are willing to pay exorbitant prices for premium experiences.
Success isn’t a sure thing, though. The attraction still has little name recognition. It’s also a full hour drive away from Naha Airport. And, needless to say, a theme park with no character branding doesn’t hold the same allure as a park like Universal or a skiing hot spot like Niseko. It’ll take some aggressive marketing for this scheme to pay off.
Not the first – or last – two-tier pricing attraction
Businesses and historic sites in Japan have wrestled recently with whether to move toward two-tier pricing. Most tourists, the reasoning goes, are already getting a great deal thanks to Japan’s weak yen.
Two-tier pricing, especially for municipally-owned historic sites, can help preserve history and maintain order at popular tourist destinations. It also gives financial relief to locals who are struggling as prices for everything from utilities to rice go through the roof.
Several sites, such as Himeji Castle, have already moved to a two-tier pricing system. I wrote earlier today about a Buddhist temple in Fukuoka that’s using two-tier pricing to control and repair tourism-related damage. Hokkaido has urged local businesses across the board to consider two-tier pricing.
Many businesses and tourist hot spots are undoubtedly eyeing Junglia’s two-tier pricing experiment. If it succeeds, expect more places in Japan to follow suit.
Discuss this article with other UJ fans on our Bluesky account or Discord server!
Help keep us going
We’re an independent site that keeps our content free of intrusive ads. If you love what we do, help us do more with a donation to the Unseen Japan Journalism Fund in any amount.
What to read next
Japan Buddhist Temple Starts Two-Tier Pricing to Offset Overtourism Damage
A famous Buddhist temple in Fukuoka is charging a nominal fee to overseas tourists after some prove incapable of minding their manners.
More Than a Budget Stay: The Controversy Behind Japan’s APA Hotels
APA Hotels in Japan are ubiquitous and affordable. Behind the cheap prices lies an aggressive business strategy and war crimes denialism.
No Place to Sleep? Lawson Offers New Options for Japan’s Night Travelers
Japan’s night travelers are growing, but roadside rest spots aren’t. Lawson steps in with a new safe—and paid—option.
Sources
「JUNGLIA OKINAWA（ジャングリア沖縄）」本日、2025年7月25日（金）グランドオープン！！当日朝9時15分、開業セレモニーを実施 ナビゲーター約200名がゲストを笑顔でお出迎え. PR Times
ジャングリア沖縄開業 二重価格の成否占う. Nikkei
Yambaru. Wikipedia
