Nagashima Spa Land is a sprawling amusement park in Kuwana, Mie Prefecture, Japan, sitting roughly 30 kilometers west of Nagoya as part of the larger Nagashima Resort complex. Opened in 1966, the park grew from a regional hot-spring resort into one of Japan’s premier coaster destinations, drawing millions of visitors each year who come for its dense lineup of thrill rides alongside hot springs, a water park, and the neighboring Nabana no Sato botanical garden.
The park’s headline attraction is Steel Dragon 2000, a D. H. Morgan Manufacturing giga coaster that opened in 2000 and briefly held the title of world’s longest roller coaster. With 12 roller coasters on site in total, Nagashima Spa Land has built a reputation as one of the most coaster-dense parks in Asia, ranking as the fourth-most-visited amusement park in Japan in 2022.
Stats at a Glance
- Location: Kuwana, Mie Prefecture, Japan
- Operator: Nagashima Resort (Nagashima Kanko Kaihatsu Co., Ltd.)
- Opened: 1966
- Roller Coasters: 12
- Annual Visitors: about 4.2 million (2022)
- Signature Attraction: Steel Dragon 2000 (318 ft tall, 95 mph, 8,133 ft long)
The Ride Experience
Steel Dragon 2000 anchors the park’s coaster lineup, standing about 97 meters (318 feet) tall with a roughly 93.5-meter first drop and a top speed near 152.9 km/h (95 mph) across a track length of about 2,479 meters (8,133 feet), giving riders a four-minute journey that remains one of the longest coaster experiences in the world. The ride has run since 2000, aside from a multi-year closure after a 2003 wheel-assembly incident, and reopened in 2006 with reinforced wheels. Beyond the giga coaster, the park’s other 11 coasters range from classic looping steel rides to more compact family layouts, giving visitors of varying thresholds plenty to choose from in a single visit.
The Aurora Wheel Ferris wheel, standing about 90 meters tall, offers a slower-paced counterpoint to the coasters, while the on-site hot spring facility, Yuami no Shima, taps into the resort’s roots as a spa destination rather than a pure thrill park.
A Regional Icon
Nagashima Spa Land sits alongside Nabana no Sato, a botanical garden famous for elaborate seasonal illumination displays using millions of LED lights, and the two attractions together with an outlet mall and hotels make up the broader Nagashima Resort. That combination of thrill rides, hot springs, and garden scenery has helped the park draw an estimated 4.2 million guests in 2022, making it the fourth-most-visited amusement park in Japan that year, trailing only Tokyo Disneyland, Tokyo DisneySea, and Universal Studios Japan.
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Nagashima Spa Land FAQs
How tall is Steel Dragon 2000?
Steel Dragon 2000 stands about 97 meters (318 feet) tall, making it one of the tallest roller coasters in the world.
How many roller coasters does Nagashima Spa Land have?
The park has 12 roller coasters, giving it one of the densest coaster lineups of any amusement park in Asia.
Is Nagashima Spa Land the most-visited theme park in Japan?
No. With about 4.2 million visitors in 2022, it ranked fourth in Japan behind Tokyo Disneyland, Tokyo DisneySea, and Universal Studios Japan.
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Photo: Alpsdake / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.