Land of the Rising Mickey
Page 2 of 2
Fugio liked to take credit for the idea of reclaiming O-sankaku for an amusement park. In 1959, he did work to get the Urayasu town council to approve legislation which supported the building an amusement park, but Kawasaki had already been dreaming of Disneyland. Kawasaki also already had his eye on Urayasu and O-sankaku, an area he was very familiar with.
Kawasaki recalled, "When I was a child, I
often went to Urayasu for fishing with my father. That's why I'm familiar with
Urayasu."
And -
"In Chiba, Funabashi and Tsudanuma were already reclaimed, so I thought Urayasu would
be next."
When Tanzawa talked to him about reclaiming O-sankaku, naturally, he was interested. He agreed to explore further the possibility of working together. Tanzawa also wanted to involve a friend of his, the president Daiei, a movie studio. Instead, Kawasaki insisted on Edo Hideo, the president of Mitsui Fudosan, due to their friendship and Edo's experience with land reclamation.
Edo wasn't interested. He was suspicious of Fugio. But Tanzawa wouldn't leave him alone, visiting to Edo's home again and again. His persistence paid off and he finally convinced Edo to become a partner in what would become Oriental Land Company.
Kawasaki also has a bad feeling about Fujio but, because of their seemingly shared goal, he looked past it.
Fujio had some previous experience with the fishermen, due to his dealing with Urayasu's local government concerning O-sankaku. It would Fugio's job build relationships and win the trust of the fishermen.
• • •
With the Chiba government's contract to reclaim the land at O-sankaku, Oriental Land Company was formed on July 11th, 1960. Keisei Railway (Kawasaki), Mitsui Fudosan (Edo), and Asahi Tochi-kogyo (Tanzawa) each held 32% of the company. The remaining 4% went to... Fugio, for his early footwork and his important future role as negotiator.
O-sankaku was also purchased from the city of Urayasu at that point, but not by OLC. Fugio suggested that the fishermen would be more comfortable with the situation if the property were purchased in his name. The parties involved reluctantly agreed, and although the area was paid for for with 100 million yen of OLC money, the deed was in Fugio's name.
The area's fishing rights were not part of the deal, and transfer of those right would still need to be negotiated with the fishermen. But before the end of OLC's first month, just as formal negotiations with the fisherman were about to begin, Fujio was arrested.
The charge was unrelated to OLC (and still unknown to me). But, due to his stake in the company, police searched OLC's headquarters at the Keisei Railway building in Ueno, confiscating all of the company's accounting records.
During the investigation of those records it was discovered that Fugio had been bribing a member of the Chiba Assembly, a man named Okajima. Okajima also happened to be a popular and influential leader of the Urayasu fishermen.
Ultimately, Fugio and Okajima were convicted on bribery charges, each serving a year in prison. (Despite the conviction, Okajima later rose to become mayor of Urayasu!)
It was also found that Fugio had embezzled large sums of money from OLC and funneled it into his various other business.
• • •
So, right out of the gate, OLC was left with a tarnished reputation and no one capable of negotiating with the fisherman, who were now less trusting than ever. And that wasn't all. Fugio's greatest scam hadn't played itself out yet...
But Takahashi Masatomo was on his way, and it wasn't a moment too soon.
Tune in on Monday, June 25th for part three.
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-- Marc Borrelli
Marc Borrelli has been visiting Disneyland in California for over thirty years and has had the opportunity to observe many of the Park's onstage and backstage workings. He is an entrepreneur who alternates between working obsessively and having way too much time on his hands. In the past few years he's spent much of that time exploring his hobby of trying to figure out just what it is that makes the people who design, build, operate, and go to Disney theme parks tick. He is now living in Tokyo, Japan and has turned his attention to the Tokyo Disney Resort and the unique culture in which it exists. He also created and maintains his Tokyo DisneySea Preview website.
Land of the Rising Mickey is normally posted on the first Monday of each month.
The opinions expressed by Marc Borrelli, and all of our columnists, do not necessarily represent the feelings of LaughingPlace.com or any of its employees or advertisers. All speculation and rumors about the future of the Walt Disney Company are just that - speculation and rumors - and should be treated as such.
© Marc Borrelli and LaughingPlace.com. All rights reserved
-- Posted June 11, 2001.