Haruo Masuda

Haruo Masuda was born in 1948 in Japan. He attended the Tokyo University of the Arts, Department of Sculpture between 1968 and 1972. Initially on leaving art school, he worked as an independent artist and designer

In 1980 he joined the Oriental Land Co. (Tokyo Disneyland - TDL) and was sent to the USA. He learned about the work of multiple departments at WED (now Walt Disney Imagineering) California and then Florida, studying all aspects of attraction show production. He returned to Japan in 1982 to head up the attraction installation for OLC. This was the first overseas theme park built by any US company.

Haruo lead the maintenance dept at TDL, and then in 1986 he established the Show Quality center at the park. From 1986 -2001 he worked on the master plan and facilities development for TDL and was involved in the concept development of Tokyo Disney Seas, the second park on the property.

In 2001 he left OLC after the opening of Tokyo Disney Seas and became an independent advisor and consultant to theme parks. Between 2005 and 2012 he transitioned to exhibit planning and design, working on 4 major exhibitions about animation, US, Japanese and European:

2006 "Art of Disney"

2007 "Ghibli Artist Kazuo Oga"

2009 "Art of Mary Blair"

2011 "Art of Frederick

Since then, he has been giving lectures and seminars at local Universities and writing magazine articles.