Japan's first Moomins-themed amusement park, located in Hanno near Tokyo, has completed construction and will begin a phased opening next month.

The whole park is called Metsa and is split into two areas – Metsa Village, which features northern-European restaurants and other facilities and Moomin Valley Park, an amusement park which is built around stories from the popular Finnish cartoon The Moomins.

Moomin Valley Park will officially open in March 2019, while Metsa Village will open in November.

Pekka Orpana, the Finnish ambassador to Japan, was on-hand at a ceremony to celebrate the completion of the park, which was built in a 190,000sq m (2,000,000sq ft) forest area by Lake Miyazawako.

Investment bank FinTech Global (FGI) is behind the development and remains a major stakeholder in the project. The Tokyo-based firm initially wanted to launch the park in 2015 but had difficulties finding the right site for it. FGI signed a Basic Agreement on Local Renaissance with the city of Hanno to set out the development’s parameters. According to FGI, this agreement underpinned joint efforts to attract tourists to both the theme park and to Hanno.

Moomin Monogatari have overseen the project, which is being supplied in-part by Puuha International Oy, the Finnish playground equipment group.

The Moomins stories were first published in 1945 in Swedish by the Finnish writer and artist Tove Jansson, with the nine books and various comic strips since being adapted into animated TV shows worldwide.