After 25 years of successfully luring children through the gates of the Magic Kingdom, Tokyo Disneyland is finally yielding to the realities of modern Japan: Mickey Mouse has decided to chase the “silver yen”.

The move comes because Disney, along with the rest of Japan, is running out of children. According to a report released yesterday by the Health Ministry, the customer base that has kept the Disney turnstiles spinning since the theme park opened outside Tokyo in 1983 took another sharp dive last year.

With Japan's birthrate in decline, Disney has accepted the stark economics of the new market: the largest group of customers with the money and the time to spend a day on Splash Mountain or Pooh's Hunny Hunt is mostly retired.

To entice this burgeoning segment of society on to the rides the company is offering a cut-price season ticket for the over-60s and has made older people the park's new “core target”.

The move, which is unprecedented throughout Disney's global empire of theme parks, marks a watershed in Japan's descent into demographic crisis.

The senior citizen's multiple-entry pass, which will sell at a 22 per cent discount, reflects the manner in which many Japanese visit Disneyland — as a series of trips through the year, mainly by families living in or around Tokyo.

The 25th anniversary this year is expected to attract more out-of-town visitors than usual, possibly taking visitor numbers above 26million. To meet that demand several new hotels have been built around the park. One of them, which is designed to replicate the effect of being on the deck of a luxury cruise ship, is clearly built with the retirement market in mind.

Tokyo Disneyland is among the later organisations to make the strategic shift to the silver yen. The Japanese leisure sector is skewed towards grandparents and where once there were slides, see-saws and swings on playgrounds there are now special stretching machines for the elderly and seats to ease the pain of rheumatic joints.

The mass retirement this year of the baby-boomers — the generation born in 1947 and 1948 — has long presented a conundrum for economists.

The savings that they made during Japan's era of quick growth present a potentially enormous bonanza for businesses. It still remains unclear, however, how easily this conservative generation will be parted from its wealth.

Not dead yet

Lagoon Watersports, a British company, offers OAPs a £201 discount on its membership package. It includes free rental of sailing and windsurfing equipment and free race sessions in both sports

Pascha, Germany’s largest brothel, runs a generous 50 per cent afternoon discount scheme for those over 66. Though the offer ends at five, there is also reduced entry to the establishment’s night club at 9pm

Members of the American Association of Retired People seeking cut-price acupuncture or rehab can receive discounts of 15 per cent at New York’s Legend rehabilitation clinic

The British cinema chain Arts Picture House offers special ‘Silver Screen’ film showings for the elderly. Tickets cost just £3.50 and free tea and biscuits are provided

Sources: Arts Picture House; Legend Rehabilitation; Lagoon Watersports; agencies

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