Talk:List of incidents at Tokyo Disney Resort

Help request

While starting up this article, I was researching other past incidents and came across citations for an incident at Space Mountain in 2003 that was included on the main article but wasn't cited. I've added some citations, but the only things that come up are from High Beam, which requires a subscription in order to see the entire article. This stuff has to be out there somewhere, so if someone could help track down free but verifiable sources to replace this, it'd be a big help. --McDoobAU93 20:12, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

March 11, 2011 Earthquake

Use of Duffy Bears for Protection in DisneySEA

While researching the Tokyo Disney Resort's reactions to the earthquake for this article, I found strong documentary evidence in the form of videos posted on YouTube that DisneySEA cast members in the vicinity of the Cape Cod area (where the Duffy store is located) passed out large numbers of Duffy Bears for use as head protection in case of falling debris. The number of bears distributed looked, in the videos, to be several hundred at least. In other areas of the park, staff could be seen in the videos passing out bubble wrap for use as head protection to guests. Unfortunately, I cannot post these occurrences in the article as there is no documented print source, only the videos. I am trying to find print documentation, but if any other editors can find information before me and would care to research this (especially if you can read Japanese sources, as my Japanese is limited) it is an area worth investigating. Disaster preparedness and reaction is a crucial part of handling a crisis like this earthquake, and therefore should be noted in the article. -LainEverliving LainEverloving (talk) 04:51, 16 April 2011 (UTC)

At the same time, there are also reports (including some supported by video) of cast members handing out plush toys (such as Duffy) to kids that were in the park at the time simply to calm them down. That said, we may be getting too detailed for what essentially is a summary article. Perhaps the information you mention would be more suited to the main article instead. Incidentally, videos can be legitimate sources for Wikipedia ... check out Template:Cite video for details on how to do so. --McDoobAU93 14:33, 16 April 2011 (UTC)

I think it may be worth eventually creating an article specifically for the earthquake's effects on the Tokyo Disney Resort, as they have been so significant and ongoing. For the moment, I think things are adequate for this summary, and I'll see about possibly making a dedicated article covering the incident and subsequent re-openings. -LainEverliving LainEverloving (talk) 07:47, 20 May 2011 (UTC)

Before you go that far, let's consider WP:UNDUE for a moment. Nobody died in the park, none of its attractions crumbled to the ground during the quake, and the main reason the parks closed up was because the nation's infrastructure was so torn up nobody could get there. In all honesty, while the Tohoku quake was indeed a major disaster for all of Japan, Tokyo Disney came out of it relatively unscathed. --McDoobAU93 14:26, 20 May 2011 (UTC)

I would only consider creating an article for the incident if sufficient sources and materials of interest turned up to make it worthwhile. The main noteworthiness of such a hypothetical article would be the unprecedented closure to the resort (the first and only such incident in its history), and in general the noteworthiness of such a total shutdown in terms of global theme park history. A secondary point would be the importance of the resort as a symbol of Japan's tourist industry, and the significant coverage the resort received following the earthquake in the international media. At the moment, the amount of materials I've found in research falls somewhere between being too much for a summary (or for proportional inclusion in the main Tohoku Earthquake article) and too little for a separate article. As I've been following the Tohoku Earthquake closely and am also interested in the Tokyo Disney Resort, I continue to find information, but whether or not it would be sufficient for an article that would possess due weight for being both related to the earthquake and to the resort's history, only time will tell. In any event, I will make a note of it here if I believe I've found sufficient sources and information to justify creating a new article. -LainEverliving LainEverloving (talk) 03:11, 21 May 2011 (UTC)

Let me see if I can provide some additional context. You bring up a valid point that the Tokyo parks haven't really closed before like this. Well, the American Disney parks closed due to the events of 9/11, with Disneyland not even opening, as it was still early morning at the time of the attacks, and the Florida parks have closed numerous times due to hurricanes, which are also a natural disaster (although I'm certainly not trying to equate the hurricanes with the earthquake/tsunami in terms of total damage). Both are symbols of American tourism, but neither closure has merited more than a brief mention, much less a full article. Another symbol of Japanese tourism, Universal Studios Japan in relatively-undamaged Osaka, reported business-as-usual, for the most part.

In my opinion (and yes, this is just MY opinion, which is nowhere near enough for consensus), it's gonna take something MAJOR — say, discovery of defects requiring an attraction to be completely razed/rebuilt — being discovered in the coming months/years to merit a full-blown article. Just the same, I wish you luck in your research.

--McDoobAU93 03:27, 21 May 2011 (UTC)

You make a well-reasoned argument. Again, I'll have to see if the research warrants it. I think the chief differences between the 9/11 closures of the US parks (and also the hurricane closures in Florida) and the Tokyo Disney Resort closure is the length of time of the closure (exceeding one month), the larger infrastructure damage caused by the earthquake to the facilities and surrounding urban area (such as the liquefaction of Urayasu), and the large number of people trapped in the park for an extended period. These issues make the Tohoku Earthquake-related closure more significant for operations of the Tokyo Disney Resort than the incidents which occurred at or indirectly involved the US parks. Also, because of ongoing complications due to power shortages, the installation of on-site generators, repairs to Big Thunder Mountain in Tokyo Disneyland, and so on, I think there will continue to be material related to the incident going forward in the coming months. There are also a lot of interesting disaster-specific things related to the Tohoku Earthquake and the Tokyo Disney Resort closures, such as persistent worldwide rumors on the day of the incident that the parks had been swept away by a tsunami, and the use of the Duffy Bears. Nevertheless, creating an entire article for the incident is not something I would enter into lightly or consider without much more significant research. I will have to see if the material I uncover warrants such a step or not. Given the amount of time and effort involved in creating the article and citing all the materials (YouTube videos, Japanese reports, etc.) I will likely not do it unless I have enough material to not only satisfy WP:DUE but also to make a complete and interesting article. And otherwise, thank you for the suggestions and help. -LainEverliving LainEverloving (talk) 06:34, 21 May 2011 (UTC)

Let me offer one more article worth looking at, and it's one that (a) I've done a little work on and (b) is kinda similar to what you're proposing: Impact of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on the video game industry. Personally, I agree with the creation of this article (hence my initial and continued support of it), but you'll find there's been a lot of argument about its significance on the article talk page. The article is rather well-cited, and in all honesty the video game industry is a MUCH larger component of what makes Japan what it is (relatively speaking) than the presence of Tokyo Disney. Again, I'm not trying to change your mind, and it sounds like you're proceeding with the right mind-set already ... just thinking that based on the amount of blowback that article received, a similar one focused purely on Tokyo Disney could be, er, similarly challenged. --McDoobAU93 06:50, 21 May 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for pointing that article out. I had seen it listed but wasn't aware you'd worked on it. And yes, reading through the talk page indicates a lot of (in my opinion unnecessary) anger over the topic. Rightly or wrongly, I think anger over a video games article is more due to the perception that games aren't serious, despite their significance to Japan's economy. A Tokyo Disney Resort article might escape this same fate due to (A) being related to a less-contentious topic in the eyes of international Wikipedia users, and (B) being cited in Japanese and international media as an important 'barometer' of Japan's economic recovery as a whole. That's I think one of the main reasons the coverage of the reopenings were so extensive worldwide. And of course also, within Japan the resort stands as one of the most significant leisure and entertainment venues nationwide, and the reopening renewed the spirits and hopes of many people. I think this is more of a "feel good story" that would be harder for Wikipedia trolls to criticize. Not to entirely dismiss the criticisms directed at the video game article, but as the Tohoku Earthquake is a massive societal incident for Japan, numerous specific articles will be required to cover all the facets of the damage and recovery, including for specific industries and particularly important economic/entertainment/cultural institutions. I hope the video game article is just the first of many to come that will cover all the necessary areas. Once again, thanks for the help and useful advice, and I will keep it in mind as I continue my research and decide how best to proceed. -LainEverliving LainEverloving (talk) 07:33, 21 May 2011 (UTC)

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