meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Witness History

Japan's record-breaking rollercoaster

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.41.6K Ratings

🗓️ 1 August 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On 1 August 2000, a new rollercoaster opened to the public at a theme park in Japan.

Named Steel Dragon 2000, it's located at the Nagashima Spa Land amusement park in Kuwana.

When it first opened, it broke world records, being named the longest rollercoaster in the world, at just under 2.5km long.

Kurt Brookes hears from its designer, Steve Okamoto.

A Made In Manchester production.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more. Recent episodes explore everything from the death of Adolf Hitler, the first spacewalk and the making of the movie Jaws, to celebrity tortoise Lonesome George, the Kobe earthquake and the invention of superglue. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: Eva Peron – Argentina’s Evita; President Ronald Reagan and his famous ‘tear down this wall’ speech; Thomas Keneally on why he wrote Schindler’s List; and Jacques Derrida, France’s ‘rock star’ philosopher. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the civil rights swimming protest; the disastrous D-Day rehearsal; and the death of one of the world’s oldest languages.

(Photo: Steel Dragon 2000. Credit: Getty Images)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Welcome to the Witness History podcast from the BBC World Service with me, Kurt Brooks.

0:10.9

I'm taking you back to August 2000, when a new roller coaster in Japan would shatter a multitude of records.

0:17.8

I've been speaking to its designer, Steve Okamoto, about the opening of Steel

0:22.1

Dragon 2000, the longest roller coaster in the world.

0:28.9

This ride, it was on a little computer screen for a year and a half. So to actually see it in

0:36.8

real life was phenomenal. It was just so big.

0:45.8

Located at the Nagashima Sparland Park in Kowana, Japan, it was built by American

0:50.8

Amusement Company D.H. Morgan Manufacturing. When it opened on the 1st of August

0:55.5

2000, it entered the record books of being the longest roller coaster on the planet at just under

1:00.8

two and a half kilometres. It also took the records for the fastest and highest roller coaster,

1:06.4

as well as having the biggest drop. Steel Dragon 2000 was designed by Steve Okamoto.

1:12.3

Born in 1957 in California,

1:14.7

Steve had worked in amusement since the late 1970s,

1:17.6

and before designing the massive adrenaline-pumping steel dragon

1:20.6

had worked on rides across North America and Europe.

1:29.1

One of the first rides that I designed myself was at the Expo 86 in Vancouver, and that

1:37.9

ride later moved to six flags over Mid-America, and that ride is the ninja. Another ride that I did the first

1:47.0

seven looper. That was the shockwave and that was at six flags at Chicago. What can you tell us about

1:54.4

the first time that you heard about Steel Dragon 2000? We were also talking to a park in America called Cedar Point about possibly building a ride

2:06.1

like Steel Dragon 2000.

2:09.1

And we were also talking to this Japanese company.

2:12.4

But I think that they thought that we were going to be building this ride for Cedar Point, so they felt like

...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 27 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.