Nintendo Museum Being Built at Repurposed Factory in Kyoto

Nintendo has announced that it's building a new museum at the site of one of its old factories in Kyoto, Japan — and you'll be able to visit it by mid-2024 at the latest.


Published: June 1, 2021 9:37 PM /

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Nintendo Museum Nintendo Gallery Japan cover

A Nintendo museum will be opening in Japan's Kyoto prefecture — one of the company's old factories will be repurposed into what's tentatively being called the "Nintendo Gallery."

Most people know Nintendo as the company that makes video games and consoles, but it's actually been around a little longer than that. And by that, I mean the company was first founded all the way back in 1889 when Fusajiro Yamauchi began making hanafuda cards. As the blog Before Mario shows, the company made all sorts of toys before it got into making the games and consoles we love them for today. Now, we'll soon get to a lot of the company's history in a brand-new facility.

"Nintendo has been discussing the possibility of building a gallery, as a way to share Nintendo’s product development history and philosophy with the public," read a press release from the company. "To this end, the Nintendo Uji Ogura Plant will be renovated to accommodate the gallery, a decision reached after taking consideration of The City of Uji’s plan of re-developing the nearby Ogura Station area."

There's sure to be plenty of stuff to pack into the museum — Nintendo is known for obsessively archiving its old stuff, even if it was from decades ago. In fact, Trials of Mana producer Masaru Oyamada told Game Informer that his team had to get the source code for the original games from Nintendo, and is why that re-release is exclusive to Nintendo hardware.

The Nintendo Gallery will show off products from the company's history along with unspecified "exhibits and experiences." Considering all of the blockbuster gaming franchises that were created by Nintendo, I'm sure they'll have no shortage of things to show off in the museum.

Nintendo Museum Nintendo Gallery Japan slice

Where is the Nintendo Museum?

If you'd like to visit the Nintendo Museum when it opens, you're going to have to get a plane ticket — the "Nintendo Gallery" is being built in Ogura-cho, Uji-city, Kyoto, Japan.

It gets a little more challenge from there — the museum is not located in Japan's modern capital Tokyo. Nintendo is headquartered in Kyoto, the former capital of Japan that's roughly a 285 mile (458km) drive away. That's a six-hour car drive, although you could always take the Shinkansen bullet train and get there in under 3 hours.

The Nintendo Gallery is expected to open within Fiscal Year 2023 — that means you'll be able to visit the Nintendo museum sometime between April 1, 2023, and March 31, 2024. More details about what the museum will have within and what (if anything) it's expected to cost to enter will likely be released in the coming months and years.

What do you think of the planned Nintendo museum? Would you like to see an equivalent built in the West? Let us know in the comments below!

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A photograph of TechRaptor Senior Writer Robert N. Adams.
| Senior Writer

One of my earliest memories is playing Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo Entertainment System. I've had a controller in my hand since I was 4 and I… More about Robert N