Dear Friends,

Some childhood dreams take a little longer to come true.

Visiting Disneyland was one of my childhood dreams.

I still remember when I was in Grade 6 or 7, watching a few vernacular movies here in India where they showed beautiful scenes and songs filmed at Disneyland.

I used to look at those places and think, how wonderful it would be to visit a place like this someday!

Of course, travelling to Disney destinations in other countries wasn’t something that was easily affordable for us back then. So it remained one of those little dreams I carried with me.

And finally, I got to experience Disney in my 30s! Maybe a little late compared to what I had imagined as a child, but honestly, I was happy that I could make that dream come true.

Living in Japan gave me that opportunity to visit Tokyo Disneyland.

But here is something interesting that I recently learnt, and many people might not know this.

Tokyo Disneyland is actually not owned by The Walt Disney Company!

Thsi would be more surprising for you all!- right?

It is fully owned and operated by a Japanese company called Oriental Land Company (OLC).

Then here’s how it works:

The Oriental Land Company owns and operates Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea, while being Disney licenses its brand, characters and intellectual property and receives the royalties.

A little history: Oriental Land Company was established in 1960, Tokyo Disneyland opened in 1983 as the first Disney park outside the US and Tokyo DisneySea followed in 2001.

So, when you visit Tokyo Disneyland, you’re experiencing Disney magic, but the company actually owning and operating the resort is Japanese!

I find this business arrangement so interesting. It is also a wonderful example of how an international brand can collaborate with a local company to create something on such a massive scale.

And coming back to my childhood dream, sometimes we don’t realise how certain little wishes stay with us for years.

I may not have visited Disneyland as a child, but getting to experience it in my 30s made me happy in a different way.

Some dreams don’t have an expiry date. They just wait for the right time.