Credit: Tokyo Disney ResortA police officer was recently disciplined after living out everyone’s secret daydream: ditching work for Disney.
Everyone’s guilty of skipping work at some point, but one police officer recently found himself in deep trouble after not turning up on his scheduled workday and instead choosing to visit Disney.
According to Kobe NP, the officer’s superiors grew concerned when he failed to arrive at work on October 1. They tracked his location via his phone’s GPS, and they found him at a Disney park hundreds of miles away from the police station where he worked in Kobe City.
The next day, police found him leaving a hotel near Tokyo Disney Resort with his girlfriend.
Unsurprisingly, skipping work didn’t go unpunished. The officer was apparently reprimanded but has since quit his position. It was also revealed that he had grown unhappy in his position after being advised on his finances by his co-workers, having racked up debts of approximately 4 million yen ($25,800 USD) on shopping and hobbies such as golf and snowboarding.
Having started to consider resigning, he devised a solution: visit Tokyo Disneyland without permission so he could be fired instead.
Obviously, that’s one way to get yourself out of an unhappy work situation. With its array of original attractions – such as Pooh’s Hunny Hunt, The Happy Ride with Baymax, Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast, and the upcoming “it’s a small world with Groot” – Tokyo Disneyland is often considered one of Disney’s best theme parks. All that considered, that definitely doesn’t mean skipping out on the job is the wisest choice.
We don’t recommend attempting something similar, but if a few days at Disney are what you need to clear your head, we’ll always suggest booking that trip ASAP—with permission, of course.
Beyond hosting absconding police officers, there’s a lot going on at Tokyo Disneyland right now. The park recently shuttered its versions of Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters. While the former will be replaced with a totally new take on the iconic indoor roller coaster, the latter is set to be replaced with Disney’s first Wreck-It Ralph (2012) attraction in 2026.
Due to the weak yen, Tokyo Disney Resort has also become a hotspot for international visitors. One-day park tickets for Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea are currently priced between $51 and $70 per day, compared to Disney Word’s range of $119 to $189, with 2025 bringing a new maximum price of $199 for Magic Kingdom Park.
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