What is Ghibli Park?

Ghibli Park occupies part of the Expo 2005 Aichi Commemorative Park in Nagakute, outside Nagoya, and opened in phases beginning November 2022. It was developed with Aichi Prefecture on the principle, repeated by its makers, that it would cut no trees and build no rides: instead of attractions, the park recreates places, the Satsuki and Mei house from Totoro had in fact stood on the site since the 2005 Expo, preserved as an exhibit long before the park existed.

The areas opened in stages. Ghibli's Grand Warehouse, a large indoor building of film sets, exhibits and a cinema, came first, with the Hill of Youth, built around Whisper of the Heart and The Cat Returns, and Dondoko Forest around the Totoro house. Mononoke Village followed in 2023, and the Valley of Witches, drawing on Kiki's Delivery Service, Howl's Moving Castle and Earwig and the Witch, with a full scale Howl's Castle, completed the announced set in 2024.

The warehouse is the collector's building: full scale sets such as the bathhouse street from Spirited Away and the airship interiors, exhibitions of production material, and a shop stocking park exclusive goods. Like the museum, the park treats documentation as part of the product, with official guidebooks and area publications that record the sets and their construction, sold on site and through official channels.

Practical notes mirror the museum's: admission is by advance timed reservation, areas are ticketed in combinations that change by season, and international demand for the warehouse slots in particular is heavy. For the Library's purposes the park matters as the second permanent physical home of the films, and its documented exhibits, named in the sources, are the only park imagery this section describes.