Sorry for cross posting. Dunno if people had seen this.
Christian
June 2, 2000
New York Times
TOKYO JOURNAL
The Little White Ball That Put Japan in the Red
By HOWARD W. FRENCH
Mitsuko Fujii, 64, playing golf at the Kasama Country Club on the
outskirts of Toyko. About the financial fiasco that resulted from the
golf-course craze, she says, "I think the banks were the most guilty
party."
TOKYO, June 1 -- During the economic boom in the 1980's, few things
reflected this country's exploding wealth better than its sudden madness
for golf.
In a nation of badly overcrowded cities and itsy-bitsy homes, wide, lush
fairways were constructed at such a clip that by the end of the decade
there were 2,400 courses, covering an area roughly triple the size of
Tokyo itself. Lavish clubhouses included expensive artwork from masters
like Chagall and Monet and solid gold fixtures. Bankers and promoters were
financing memberships -- for up to $200,000 each -- as investments that
they predicted would take off like a well-hit tee shot.
But the golf club investment craze here ran into trouble when Japan's
economic bubble burst 10 years ago. Personal bankruptcies rose, the value
of club memberships fell and many courses were immediately in a financial
hole.
Now, at least 1,700 of the country's golf courses are either bankrupt or
in financial trouble, according to industry estimates. And the bankers and
other lenders who financed the courses and the individual memberships are
desperately trying to contain one of the the economy's biggest problems.
"It is very difficult to exactly calculate the extent of the bad loan
problem in this country," said Takehito Sasaki, managing director at
PricewaterhouseCoopers, Japan. "Some people estimate it at $1.2 trillion.
Maybe 20 percent of that is related to the golf course crisis."
Included in that is an estimated $95 billion in non-interest-bearing
security deposits on club memberships that are tied up in distressed clubs
-- more than the gross domestic product of Ireland or Singapore or New
Zealand.
more at http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/060200japan-golf.html
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