Huis Ten Bosch (theme park)

is a theme park in Sasebo, Nagasaki, Japan, which recreates the Netherlands and displays life-sized copies of old Dutch buildings. The name Huis Ten Bosch translates into English as "House at the Woods/Forest". It is named after Huis ten Bosch in The Hague, one of the three official residences of the Dutch royal family. The park features many Dutch-style buildings such as hotels, villas, theatres, museums, shops, and restaurants, along with canals, windmills, amusement rides, and a park planted with seasonal flowers.

History

The site of the park was originally a Dutch trading post, which was built in 1609. Afterward, it was an industrial landfill, but during World War II, the site of the theme park was converted into the Harioko Navy College to relieve congestion at Etajima Naval College. After the war, the college was torn down.

In 1979, Yoshikuni Kamichika visited the Netherlands, and became inspired to build an amusement park inspired by the country. In 1983, he had completed the "Nagasaki Holland Village", a Dutch-themed town and theme park in size. It was financially successful, so he decided to extend the idea to Huis Ten Bosch, which would be geared more toward adults. He started work on Huis Ten Bosch in October 1988. Designed by a group of architects known as "the Committee of the Fifteen", which was chaired by architect Template:Ill, the park opened on 25 March 1992 and cost Template:JPY to build, receiving financial support from banks and transport companies. The project included the planting of 400,000 trees and the digging of of canals. It also saw the addition of 250 villas, modeled after the town of Wassenaar, and bricks from the Netherlands were imported for its construction. It is named after Huis ten Bosch (translates to "House at the Woods/Forest") in The Hague, one of the three official residences of the Dutch royal family.

The park was built during an economic bubble and recorded a peak attendance of 4.25 million visitors in 1996. However, the number of visitors later declined due to the market crash that followed, and the park declared bankruptcy in 2003 with debt of Template:JPY billion. The rebuilding plan was sponsored by Nomura Principal Finance Company until March 2010, when H.I.S., a travel agency, took over the management by injecting Template:JPY billion. In 2022, the shares owned by H.I.S. were sold to PAG, an investment firm, for Template:JPY, and shares owned by five other companies were sold to PAG as well, making the total paid to the investment firm Template:JPY.

The company suffered financially during the pandemic, but started to become more profitable during 2022.

In 2015, the opened at the park. The hotel was the first worldwide to be completely staffed by robots, a project sponsored and funded by the government. The hotel proved unpopular and was refitted as the Hotel Rotterdam, reopening in October 2023.Template:Better source needed

Overview

Location

Huis Ten Bosch Station, operated by the Kyushu Railway Company, serves trains arriving from either Nagasaki or Sasebo. The park can also be reached by boat from Nagasaki Airport or Sasebo via Huis Ten Bosch Marina and Harbour. It is located to the south of Fukuoka and to the north of Nagasaki.

It is the biggest theme park by land in Japan as of 2025, with an area of . It is located around southeast of Sasebo on Hario Island, an area of reclaimed marshland on the main coastline of Kyushu facing Ōmura Bay. Its location in this area of the country reflects the historical relations between the Netherlands and Japan, which began in 1609 when a trading post was opened by the Dutch in Hirado, an island off the coast of Kyushu around northwest of central Sasebo.

Park

Huis Ten Bosch is open daily from 9.00 AM to 9.30 PM between March and November, and from 9.00 AM to 8.30 PM between December and February.

Huis Ten Bosch contains 11 attractions, 12 museums, 61 shops, 53 restaurants, and five hotels.

The waste products coming from the park are treated to create energy and compost.

The park features many Dutch-style buildings such as hotels, villas, theatres, museums, shops, and restaurants, along with canals, windmills, amusement rides, and a park planted with seasonal flowers. It contains replicas of Gouda Town Hall and the Dom Tower, and a recreation of the original Huis ten Bosch palace and garden, which serves as a museum. The Dom Tower at the park is tall. All of the park's museums are integrated into and located in the park. Villas located at the park's canals are available for rent or for rent as timeshares.

In popular culture

Huis Ten Bosch was used as the set for the 2022 Netflix limited television series Run for the Money.

See also

• List of amusement parks in Asia