In a few years, you may be able to visit a gallery dedicated entirely to Nintendo"s portfolio of products released throughout history. The Japanese company has announced that it"s reusing an old manufacturing plant, the Uji Ogura plant, as a gallery for its products after its previous function was transferred to a different facility.
Despite being known mostly for its videogame products, which it started making in the 1970s, Nintendo was originally founded in 1889 as a manufacturer of playing cards known as Hanafuda cards, which it still makes to this day. The company has had its hand in numerous businesses, most notably classic toys prior to its shift to electronic games, but it also ran a taxi service and a chain of "love hotels" at one point. The announcement didn"t specifically say whether these businesses would be represented in some way at the gallery, however.
The Uji Ogura plant was used for manufacturing of playing cards and Hanafuda cards, as well as a customer service center for product repairs, but those functions were transferred to the new Uji plant in late 2016, and since then the company has been thinking about what to do with it. The idea to turn it into a gallery will also tie into the Uji city"s plans to re-develop the area around the Ogura Station area nearby.
As to when it will actually be done, Nintendo says it plans to finish the work to repurpose the space by the end of its fiscal year 2023, which ends on March 31, 2024. Hopefully, international travel will be much less of a challenge by then.