All right, so it’s not that funny. But, it sounds pretty cool, they spent $870,000 thousand on the virtual land and are hoping to recoup some of that by lining up 30 blue chip companies to set up shop there. They are hoping to attract 3 million users the first year, sounds like someone has been hitting the sake pretty hard. I will post the Second Life URL when it’s opened.

A Japanese virtual megalopolis will open its doors on Friday in Second Life, the online virtual world created and owned by Linden Lab, the US company.

Virtual Tokyo is funded entirely by Dentsu, Japan’s leading advertising agency, and aims to attract 3m users within its first year, an aggressive target given that global users of Second Life total about 8m.

Dentsu is hoping to glean valuable marketing information from the online universe and tap into its vast client base, which includes many of Japan’s blue-chip companies, to create a virtual presence in the Japanese city.

Ken Aihara, who leads the Virtual Tokyo team at Dentsu, said: “This will be an invaluable platform for marketing and advertising for Dentsu.” Virtual Tokyo will operate entirely in Japanese.

Dentsu, which spent about Y10m ($870,000) to acquire the 85 hectares in Virtual Tokyo, is aiming to recoup its investment by lining up 30 or so blue-chip companies to build a virtual presence within the first year. Source: Virtual Tokyo to be unveiled in cyberspace’s Second Life

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