Shochiku sells Ofuna

[Aaron Gerow]

The Shochiku board of directors, in its continuing effort to restructure 
the company after years of poor returns, approved yesterday the sale of 
over 53000 square meters of land on and around its Ofuna Studios 
(including the defunct Kamakura Cinema World) to Kamakura Women's 
University for a price of 10.8 billion yen, effectively marking an end to 
the studio that was built in 1936 and oversaw the creation of many of the 
classic Shochiku films, from the work of Ozu and Kinoshita to the recent 
Tora-san series.  Yamada Yoji's _Gakko IV_ will apparently be the last 
film shot there.

In its place, Shochiku has also approved the purchase of 10000 square 
meters of land near Shin Kiba in Tokyo for 2 billion yen to build a 
studio to replace Ofuna.  No word yet on when and if the studio will 
actually be built.

Shochiku also announced that it will be selling the famous Naka-za 
theater in Osaka, which has been set to close at the end of this month.  
It also plans to sell about half the stock in owns in Fuji TV for about 
15 billion yen at the beginning of November.

Aaron Gerow
Yokohama National University
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