Joypolis


Joypolis is an amusement park & a department store chain that was first opened on July 20, 1994 in Yokohama, Japan. Joypolis centers have since opened in several cities in Japan and China with the parks featuring arcade games and amusement rides based on Sega intellectual properties.
Overall, 9 Joypolis theme parks have been opened, but as of 2016, only four parks remain operational: two in Japan and two in China. The rest of the parks have closed due to low visitor numbers. The Odaiba, Umeda and Qingdao parks are currently operated by CA Sega Joypolis and the Shanghai park is operated by Hong Kong-based ChinaAnimation. Sega announced in 2016 that China Animations would acquire a majority stake in Sega Live Creation for 600 million yen, effective January 2017. The parks are no longer fully controlled by Sega with the exception of the Joypolis in Okayama, which remained as part of the Sega Entertainment division of Sega until its closure in 2018.
Similar parks, owned in whole or part by Sega, called SegaWorld or GameWorks are also in existence.

Locations

Operating

Japan

Japan

Attractions

Attractions

Attractions

Attractions

On April 20, 2005, Sega Corp. closed its Tokyo Joypolis theme park temporarily, pending a police investigation and an internal investigation into park safety procedures. The action came in the wake of an accident on the previous Monday in which a 30-year-old man died after he fell out of a ride. The ride, called "Viva! Skydiving," is a simulator ride that is designed to give passengers an experience of virtual skydiving. Apparently, the ride's operators allowed the overweight man to board the ride, even though the safety belt was not long enough to fit around his body. The man was secured only by an over-the-shoulder restraint, but Sega president Hisao Oguchi says that the restraint was locked in a "more loose position," causing the man to fall out.
Reports indicate that, while Sega's official park operations manual forbids riders from riding without seat belts, Tokyo Joypolis had given its employees an unofficial manual that allowed ride operators to use their own discretion as to whether a person could board a ride. Sega says it was unaware that the park had its own manual.