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Merlin to enter Japan for the first time
Visitor attraction operator Merlin Entertainments is to open its first two attractions in Japan.
The group has announced plans to launch a Madame Tussauds at the Decks Tokyo Beach Mall in Odaiba, Tokyo Bay in October 2011, followed by a ¥1.2bn ($15m, 10m euro, £9m) Legoland Discovery Centre at the same location in June 2012.
Madame Tussauds Tokyo will be the fourth to open in Asia Pacific, joining sister attractions in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Bangkok. A fifth will open in 2012 in Sydney, Australia.
Madame Tussauds Tokyo will begin as a temporary exhibition on the 3rd floor of the Mall, but if successful, Merlin plans to make it a permanent feature.
Meanwhile, Tokyo Legoland Discovery Centre will occupy a 4,000sq m (43,000sq ft) site on the 6th and 7th floors of Decks Tokyo Beach Mall, and construction is expected to begin in September 2011.
Glenn Earlam, managing director of Merlin's Midway Attractions Operating Group, which includes both Madame Tussauds and the LDCs, said: "We've been looking for suitable sites in Tokyo, and other parts of Japan, for some time, and believe that Decks Mall offers a great opportunity for us."
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