2025 Universal Studios Japan Guide & Tips

This guide to Universal Studios Japan offers tips & tricks for visiting Osaka’s popular theme park, which is home to Super Nintendo World, Harry Potter, Jaws, and more! This includes USJ strategy & info about where to eat, what to do, how to avoid crowds, minimize wait times, and more! (Updated January 3, 2025.)

After being USJ Annual Passholders for several years and going regularly between 2013 and 2019, we’ve finally been able to return and visit Super Nintendo World a few times, with more visits planned in April and November 2025. Suffice to say, a lot has changed with the opening of Mario’s first theme park land.

The first big thing you should know to start if visiting Universal Studios Japan anytime soon is that the park has been quietly opening before the published time. This is reportedly a mitigation measure to reduce congestion outside the park–nevertheless, crowds were colossal during our visit.

Since this early opening is unadvertised and unpublished, it varies from day-to-day and could stop happening at any time. You might visit tomorrow and not experience it. With that said, we strongly recommend arriving to the front gates of USJ at least an hour before park opening. This is the easiest way to experience Super Nintendo World without timed entry or hassling with buying Express Pass.

You can knock out both rides and some mini-games before official park opening, eat an early “lunch” in Super Nintendo World, and move on to the rest of the park. Or, you can stick around and do more Mario stuff–it’s pretty easy to spend a half or even full day in Super Nintendo World if you’re a big fan and that’s the reason for your visit.

There are a couple of huge changes at Universal Studios Japan in 2025 and beyond. First, there’s the replacement for The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man – The Ride, which closed almost a full year ago. A replacement has not yet been announced, but it’s rumored to be something Pokemon (that popular franchise is otherwise only represented in seasonal entertainment, merchandise, and food). With how quickly Universal Creative works, it’s possible the yet-unannounced attraction opens sometime in late 2025, especially if it reuses the ride system.

Additionally, there’s the big Donkey Kong Country addition to Super Nintendo World. This was originally slated to debut in the spring, but was delayed. The good news is that it finally opened during last year’s Christmas season to rave reviews and massive popularity. More on experiencing it and beating the crowds below.

Those are really the big things to know before you go in 2025. Otherwise, we are still ‘digging out’ from our month-long stay in Japan, and will have many more updates on Universal Studios Japan soon. If you’re planning a visit to USJ in 2025 or beyond, subscribe to our FREE email newsletter and stay tuned for more.

With that out of the way, let’s take a look at the big new addition to the park, which will likely draw tons of international visitors to Universal Studios Japan in 2025 and beyond…

The blockbuster Super Nintendo World is the world’s first Mario land. This was first scheduled to open before the Tokyo Summer Olympics, and even with the one-year delay that still ended up being technically true!

Super Nintendo World was designed as an intimate area–you literally enter through a green ‘warp pipe’ tunnel. It’s also entirely by design, and not because Super Nintendo World is small scale or lacks ambition. To the contrary, it’s a blockbuster $580 million expansion of Universal Studios Japan.

As noted above, we’ve had the chance to visit this new land, and share thoughts and additional photos in Super Nintendo World Review: Good, Bad & Ugly. If you’re looking for more Mario Kart info, see our Mario Kart Ride Review. We do not have a standalone post for Yoshi’s Adventure because it would be overkill.

Stay tuned for a restaurant review of  Kinopio’s Café in the near future. In the meantime, we highly recommend buying Princess Peach’s Cake. Yes, it’s on the pricey side, but it’s delicious and serves 2-4 adults.

For now, Super Nintendo World features two rides, one of which is Yoshi’s Adventure, a family-friendly attraction that allows guests to go on a journey with Yoshi. You’ll search for Captain Toad on a treasure hunt and use his map to find 3 mysterious eggs.

Super Nintendo World’s flagship attraction is Mario Kart: Koopa’s Challenge, housed inside a recreation of Bowser’s Castle. This ride features iconic courses from the Mario Kart series brought to life with cutting-edge augmented reality technology, projection mapping, and fully dimensional environments.

Universal Studios Japan isn’t stopping there with fan-favorite Nintendo franchises. Also now open (as of December 11) is the world’s first Donkey Kong Country with a roller coaster, interactive experiences, merchandise and food. The Universal creative team and the Nintendo creative team, including creator Shigeru Miyamoto, have brought to life this new Donkey Kong themed area to life at USJ.

Guests will feel like they are playing inside the world of Donkey Kong as they take a walk on the wild side through the lush jungles where Donkey Kong and his friends live. The new land invites guests to “Play Wild” and enter the world of the popular game franchise, featuring interactive experiences featuring your whole body, merchandise, food & beverage in the middle of the jungle, other wild adventures, and a state-of-the-art roller coaster called Mine Cart Madness.

On the Mine Cart Madness attraction in Donkey Kong Country, you hop on a mine cart from The Golden Temple for a thrilling ride through the mines after you’re blasted out of a barrel cannon. Join Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong in this race through the jungle on a wild adventure to protect the Golden Banana from the Tiki Tak Tribe–you’ll even leap across collapsed tracks!

The new Donkey Kong area increases the size of Super Nintendo World by 70% and the popularity of the already-popular area by approximately 700%. Donkey Kong Country’s entrance is within the existing Super Nintendo World, which means that it uses the same Area Timed Entry Ticket: Advance Booking or an Area Timed Entry Ticket/Standby Entry Ticket system already in use for Super Nintendo World as a whole.

That 700% popularity increase is an exaggeration, but the fact of the matter is that Super Nintendo World already was popular and Donkey Kong Country makes it even more popular. We just missed the new land during our recent visit to USJ, but even without it, the park was opening early due to massive crowds and Timed Entry Tickets were getting booked fast. As discussed below, the biggest piece of advice is to arrive early. We’d now recommend getting to Universal Studios Japan at least 90 minutes before the published public opening time.

It’s safe to say Donkey Kong Country and Mine Cart Madness will be incredibly popular for years to come–just like Super Nintendo World as a whole is, even several years after it opened. If you can afford it, Express Pass is highly recommended (buy it early–Express Pass does sell out). Hopefully Universal Studios Japan offers a package that includes Express Pass for all three Nintendo rides!

No matter whether you’re planning a trip to Universal Japan in 2025 to see the new Donkey Kong Country phase of Super Nintendo World, or sometime later, there’s one thing for which you should be prepared: crowds. In our experience, Universal Studios Japan is the busiest theme park on the planet, with heavy attendance and multi-hour wait times for many attractions on many days.

We’ve made several trips to Osaka, Japan over the last few years (consult our Osaka, Japan City Guide for recommendations beyond Universal), updating this guide regularly with our visits. One common thread throughout our visits has been the crowds. On busy days, we have seen posted wait times of 300 minutes for the Flying Dinosaur, Hollywood Dream, and Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that it’s possible to avoid crowds and long lines by choosing your day to visit strategically, arriving early in the morning, having an efficient touring plan, and following these handy tips. With our strategy, it’s not even necessary to purchase Express Pass (although that doesn’t hurt).

Wait times, congestion, and crowds are the obvious first issue to discuss when it comes to Universal Studios Japan, so let’s start there…

Crowds

The single biggest piece of advice is to arrive early–you should be getting off of the train nearly an hour before park opening. Universal Studios Japan was under-built given the attendance numbers it sees, meaning that every popular attraction can see serious waits, even on weekdays. These wait times can make Tokyo Disneyland’s headliners look like relative walk-ons.

Because of this, you want to arrive early, with a plan of attack, and hit the attractions that will later have long waits first-thing. After you get the big attractions out of the way, you’ll have more time to explore the park, see shows, shop, and eat, but your first 2-3 hours in the park should be calculated and maximum efficiency.

No matter the day of your visit, you’re looking at peak wait times of at least 3 hours. One day I visited, both Forbidden Journey and Hollywood Dream Backdrop maxed out at 300 minutes. The above waits are early in the day, so you can see I’m not exaggerating the importance of efficiency and arriving early. Don’t even stop for bathroom breaks, just wet your pants like a real theme park badass.

Park Tickets & Express Pass

Alternatively, if wetting your pants doesn’t sound super-cool, you might want to purchase Express Pass. On the first day I visited, Universal Studios Japan was already sold out of Express Pass an hour before park opening. We’ve been back several times since, and have ended up getting Express Pass in order to save time on busy days.

With the strategy below, you can potentially accomplish a lot without Express Pass. However, this requires using the Single Rider line extensively. In recent visits to Universal Studios Japan, we’ve noticed that Single Rider lines, especially those for thrill rides, have elevated wait times. (For example, we’ve seen the Flying Dinosaur with a posted standby wait of 180 minutes and a single rider wait of 120 minutes.)

If you want Express Pass, the easiest way to purchase it is by adding it to your tickets when purchasing them. To my knowledge, the only way to purchase Universal Studios Japan tickets with (or without–but we recommend with) Express Pass in advance is via Klook, which we recommend buying.

The reasons we recommend buying the Express Pass via Klook are three-fold. First, Express Pass will save you a lot of time waiting in line. You could easily save 3-5 hours in a single day with it.

Second, Express Pass availability is limited, and we’ve been to Universal Studios Japan several times when it has sold out completely. If your dates are already unavailable on Klook, that’s why. It’s best to purchase Express Pass a few weeks in advance, but if it’s already unavailable, you might have luck buying same-day at the park. No guarantees, though.   

Finally, if you purchase an Express Pass option that includes Mario Kart: Koopa’s Challenge or Yoshi’s Adventure, it also includes timed entry admission to Super Nintendo World. This alone is huge, and the only way to guarantee you’ll be able to access the highly-popular new land during your visit.

For the best intersection of value and time-savings, we highly recommend the buying Universal Studios Japan Express Pass 4 ~ Minecart & Thrills. This includes the following:

• Admission to: Mario Kart: Koopa’s Challenge (Time-designated) and Mine Cart Madness (Time-designated) and The Flying Dinosaur and Space Fantasy The Ride or JAWS.
• Area Timed Entry Ticket: Super Nintendo World

There are cheaper and more expensive Express Pass options. We think this is the sweet spot, as it provides line-skipping to the two biggest Super Nintendo World attractions, as well as The Flying Dinosaur, which is one of the park’s most popular (and best) roller coasters. We’re also big fans of both Space Fantasy and JAWS. This does notably leave out timed entry access to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, but that’s not normally necessary.

You can also purchase Express Pass upon arrival, but it sells out in advance quite often, which is where Klook comes in. We’ve used them for Universal Studios Japan’s Express Pass as well as other things in Japan, and have found them to offer reliable and friendly service.

In terms of purchasing in advance, Klook is the best option for tickets. There’s no easy way to purchase tickets directly on USJ’s English website. The other alternative is finding tickets at a Lawson’s convenience store kiosk once you arrive in Japan, but navigating the menus in Japanese is a challenge.

If you don’t want to purchase Universal Studios Japan park tickets via Klook for some reason but do want Express Pass, we’d recommend arriving to the park at least an hour before park opening so you have a chance at purchasing Express Pass before it sells out. Trains to and around Osaka can be very packed around the morning rush, so give yourself plenty of transit time.

While Express Pass sells out frequently, regular Universal Studios Japan park tickets also can sell out of tickets on busy days, so if you don’t purchase your tickets in advance of your trip, you still should show up an hour before parking opening to buy them if you’re going during the summer, on a weekend, or a national holiday.

Regular weekdays should not have any issues with tickets selling out so you can arrive closer to park opening. In that case, we’d still recommend getting to Universal Studios Japan at least 15-30 minutes before park opening. We’ve been a couple of times when the park opened its turnstiles ~10 minutes before official opening time.

When to Visit

Most of you probably have are reading this after already having booked a trip to Japan, and are trying to figure out when to slot Universal Studios Japan into your itinerary. For you, our strong recommendation is to visit on a non-holiday weekday. You should absolutely avoid weekends at Universal Studios Japan. Friday, Saturdays, and Sundays–particularly Saturdays, are insanely crowded.

If you have more flexibility in your schedule and are wondering which season is best, we tend to favor Halloween and Christmas, but that’s true pretty much with every theme park. In addition to better weather, there are seasonal events.

Our first visit to Universal Studios Japan was in October, which meant Halloween Horror Nights in the evening. Other special events occur throughout the year, including Cool Japan. For our most recent visit, we returned to USJ during the “NO LIMIT! Christmas” celebration. You can read that in our Tips for Christmas at Universal Studios Japan post.

We also have a separate post on Universal Studios Japan’s Halloween Horror Nights, so I’m not going to be covering that or any other special events here. Just be aware that the park does special events, so you should consult their calendar before you visit to determine how to incorporate them into your day.

If you’re thinking of a spring or summer visit, you’ll normally experience Cool Japan. This features attraction overlays and entertainment for that includes Final Fantasy, Detective Conan, Monster Hunter, and Sailor Moon. We visited USJ for Cool Japan, and had a blast doing Final Fantasy XR, seeing the shows, and trying a ton of kawaii foods.

Where to Eat

Obviously, rides are the main draw at Universal Studios Japan, but before we get to that, a quick note on food. Not all of the restaurants at USJ are equal. Some are good, some are really, really bad. 

We think food is incredibly important to the theme park experience, and have spent a lot of time “researching” the dining options at USJ to put together our Restaurant Reviews & Food Guide for Universal Studios Japan, which covers everything from full meals to snacks.

Speaking of which, cute snacks are a must when visiting Japan, and Universal does not disappoint in that regard. From Sailor Moon cakes to Minion burgers, there’s a diverse assortment of kawaii desserts and savory snacks at Universal Studios Japan. In fact, you could go the full day without having a meal and have a pretty stellar dining experience!

Single Rider Lines

The second biggest piece of advice is to take advantage of the Single Rider lines, which is a way to bypass excruciatingly long waits on the headliners. Here’s a full list of attractions at Universal Studios Japan that have Single Rider Lines:

• JAWS
• Space Fantasy – The Ride (or its XR coaster overlay)
• Hollywood Dream
• Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey
• Donkey Kong Mine Cart Madness
• Mario Kart: Koopa’s Challenge
• The Flying Dinosaur
• Jurassic Park – The Ride

That’s only 7 attractions, but the good news here is that these are 7 of the most popular attractions at Universal Studios Japan. Having this on the Flying Dinosaur–the newest and most popular attraction at Universal Studios Japan–is a pretty big deal and can save you a ton of time. (Note: Hollywood Dream used to have Single Rider on the Backdrop version of the attraction; it appears to have changed to the normal version. Your mileage may vary as to which has it when you visit.)

I don’t care how much you love your family and enjoy riding together, you need to use the Single Rider lines at USJ. This is an every-man-for-himself, kill-or-be-killed type of thing, and there’s no room for weakness like a sense of family togetherness. Okay, that’s a little harsh, but I’m only partially kidding.

By taking advantage of the Single Rider line on these attractions, you’re looking at saving 3-6 hours of time waiting in line over the course of the day. The Single Rider lines are not popular with Japanese families, meaning that even on some popular attractions with long waits, the Single Rider line will likely be a 20 minute or less wait. This is consistently true on JAWS, and we’ve bypassed a 2-hour wait by doing Single Rider.

Unfortunately, this is not as true with roller coasters and other attractions popular with Japanese teenagers, who are more willing to go solo to save some time. Rides like Hollywood Dream, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, the Flying Dinosaur–basically anything that’s a thrill ride (and that’s over half of the attractions on the list).

Accordingly, you should still make an effort to arrive at park opening and do the thrill rides with Single Rider early in the day if you want to avoid longer waits. We’ve found that within the first hour of park opening, most Single Rider lines are under 30 minutes. Midday, you might see Single Rider waits of over an hour on thrill rides.

One other thing to know about the Single Rider lines at Universal Studios Japan is that they aren’t always open. This was the one curveball I encountered, as I faced a dilemma as I strolled up to JAWS to find the Single Rider line closed and a 120 minute wait. Being a huge fan of the old school Universal Studios attractions, I did it anyway.

Later in the evening, the Single Rider line was open and our group did it again with a <5 minute wait. I don’t regret waiting 2 hours to experience it (the queue has tons of details that weren’t in the Florida version), but obviously, I would’ve preferred to experience it with a 5 minute wait.

If you find yourself faced with a similar dilemma, just remember that the Single Rider line might be open later.

Attractions & Strategy

Assuming you’re using Single Rider lines, my recommended attraction order for a normal day at USJ is as follows if you want to maximize efficiency:

• Arrive 60-90 minutes before park opening
• Super Nintendo World (via open entry)
• Donkey Kong Mine Cart Madness
• Mario Kart: Koopa’s Challenge
• Yoshi’s Adventure
• Super Nintendo World Power-Up Band Games
• Obtain timed entry for return to Super Nintendo World later
• The Flying Dinosaur (via Single Rider)
• Hollywood Dream – The Ride Backdrop (via Single Rider)
• Space Fantasy – The Ride or XR Ride overlay (via Single Rider)
• Wizarding World of Harry Potter
• Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem
• Backdraft
• JAWS (via Single Rider)
• …and so on…

Note that if you’re attending for a seasonal event, you should strongly consider prioritizing those attractions. This is particularly true with whatever the particular “The Real” attraction (which is a live action role playing game, typically one that has you battling in groups against some sort of monster). Same goes if a XR coaster is running in place of Space Fantasy during your visit. Theater shows, stage shows, or parades during special events typically do not need to be prioritized to the same degree.

If you’re a Universal Studios regular in either Florida and California, you might prioritize differently. For example, you might care more about extinct US attractions or unique Japan attractions than clones that presently exist stateside.

In terms of extinct attractions, JAWS is unquestionably the main draw (Back to the Future – The Ride closed last year; if you see it listed on another site, that is now out of date).

JAWS is largely the same as the US version, with slight differences in the pre-show. and outside the building. Amity Village where JAWS is located is larger than its Florida predecessor, and the queue is significantly better (at least to my memory).

As for unique attractions, Space Fantasy is far and away the winner here. This is like Space Mountain meets Crush’s Coaster set in the middle of a kawaii anime adventure. It is distinctly Japanese, so it’s unlikely to ever be cloned stateside, which is a real shame, because the experience is both beautiful and exciting.

This is far and away my favorite attraction at USJ. Unfortunately, it has an XR Final Fantasy overlay for Cool Japan and has had other seasonal overlays, so it’s been a while since I’ve gotten to experience the normal version of the attraction. While the XR coaster is a really cool concept, I think it’s unfortunate that they added XR to a coaster that has cool physical sets and a great theme.

There are a few other unique attractions that are noteworthy. The first is Hollywood Dream – The Ride Backdrop, which isn’t really all that unique. This is Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rock-It in Florida, except with a slightly modified track and ride vehicles that face backwards. The backwards-facing coaster is pretty cool, but not enough to justify the insane waits it sees.

Along with the Flying Dinosaur, this is an attraction that tends to draw a long line even via Single Rider. Speaking of the Flying Dinosaur, it’s really popular, and also pretty intense. It had been a while since I had done a “serious” rollercoaster, and I could barely handle this. You’re strapped up in a prone position (so, with your body parallel to the ground), and the coaster swirls you all around. I’d say you’re spending more time upside down than right-side up!

Next is Minion Park, which is really just the area around Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem. This attraction and the mini-land are really popular. Minions in general are like the Duffy (Tokyo DisneySea) of Universal Studios Japan. I was astounded by how popular all things Minions are at USJ: food, merchandise, even popcorn buckets. This attraction gets a long wait, and the entire mini-land is incredibly crowded until the evening hours.

Next is “The Real [Escape Game].” The game here rotates by season, but always has an incredibly limited capacity. In ‘The Real’ you solve puzzles within the time limit and escape from a room while battling zombies/monsters/whatever. This is a really cool concept, but unless you speak Japanese, you might consider skipping this. If you want to do it anyway, you should run here first thing to get a return time, as this is the lowest-capacity attraction in USJ.

The other must-do is Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Even if you’ve seen it in Orlando or Hollywood, this Hogsmeade has a couple of unique draws. There’s a better lead up path into the land, and the sprawling Black Lake, which makes for a beautiful photo op in the evening hours.

Because of this, you should select a time around sunset for your ticketed Wizarding World entry. The Hogwarts Castle Walk-Through is also neat, and I was able to take my DSLR and tripod inside to take photos.

Beyond this, there’s a to do that is unique to Japan that doesn’t qualify as a headliner. The entirety of Universal Wonderland, including Hello Kitty Fashion Avenue is unique, and quite kawaii.

Walking through these areas, doing some of the kiddie rides, and going in the shops is a lot of fun. Likewise, shopping at the park is fun in general, as there is a lot of Japanese merchandise, and neat things to see.

Finally, the newest major addition to USJ is “Universal Spectacle Night Parade: Best of Hollywood,” featuring Transformers, Jurassic World, Harry Potter, and Minions has now debuted! This cutting edge parade features moving projection mapping along the entire parade route–a state of the art technology developed by USJ–and much more. Until Super Nintendo World opens, this is the hot new draw to Universal Studios Japan.

That’s it for now! By following our tips for the attractions that see high wait times, you can knock out the headliners early and spend more time exploring. Even going on a busy weekend day with Halloween Horror Nights in the evening, I was able to do every attraction that I wanted to do (some more than once) and wander around taking photos for quite a while during our first visit. Without a solid plan of attack and a willingness to use Single Rider, I would’ve accomplished 3-4 attractions the entire day. On subsequent trips, we’ve planned better and done even more. Hopefully these tips help you plan a better visit to Universal Studios Japan. If you have any questions, please post them in the comments below!

If you’re planning a visit to the Japan that includes Osaka and/or Kyoto, please check out my other posts about Japan. You’ll also want to consult our Osaka, Japan City Guide to determine everything you should see and do while there.

Your Thoughts

Have any additional questions about Universal Studios Japan? Are you planning a visit in 2025 to experience Super Nintendo World? If you’ve visited, what did you like and dislike about USJ? How do you think it compares to Tokyo Disney Resort if you’ve visited both? Any additional tips to add? Does Universal Studios Japan interest you? Would you like to see more posts on it? Please share your thoughts in the comments!