$840,000 to join golf club

Press, 23 February 1987, Page 1

$840,000 to join golf club

NZPA-AP Tokyo Shigenobu Yamamoto, corporate executive, paid seven million yen ($840,000) late last year to join a golf dub near Tokyo, but he has never been there because he cannot play golf. “I became a member of the golf club as an Investment, not to play golf,” said Mr Yamamoto, who is 48. “The membership fee has nearly doubled in two months. I think it will go up further.” The usual way to join a golf club in Japan is to buy a membership already held by somebody else. Hiroshi Yasuma, a 20year veteran broker of golf memberships, said, “Golf course memberships have become a tar-

get for investment in Japan by both individuals and corporations, reflecting the low interest rates at the banks and the lack of golf courses, among other things.” Membership at Japan’s most expensive golf course — the Koganei Country Club, in Tokyo’s western outskirts — “is valued at 350 million yen ($4.2 million),” said Sadao Ushijima, managing director of the Kanto (East Japan) Golf Membership Brokerage Corporation. For the ordinary golfer, a round of 18 holes on a course in the Tokyo area, including meals and transport fees, costs an average 25,000 yen ($300) on weekdays and almost double at week-ends.