Toei Studios has announced details of its plans to construct fully digital film facilities in Tokyo's Nerima ward.

Budgeted at $45m (Y4.2bn), construction of the studios will be in the Oizumi district of Tokyo's Nerima ward. They will be located on the same lot that the original Shinko Kinema Tokyo Studios were built on in 1935 before being renamed as the Toei Tokyo Studios when the company was established in 1951.

Stage six has already been demolished to make way for the new complex of buildings on the 825 square metre plot of land.

The complex will house fully digital TV and film production sound stages, editing suites, audio production and screening facilities, creating a complete production and post-production workflow.

Toei president and CEO Yusuke Okada stated that the investment is part of the company's future expansion of its content outputand that the studios are expected to be fully operational by May of 2010. The facilities will be jointly managed by Toei and post-production subsidiary Toei Labo Tech Inc.

For its line-up in the lucrative year-end box office season, Toei is releasing a new feature in its Gegege Kitaro animation franchise. In an industry first, the film will be released in six different versions localised to different areas of the country.

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