Is Japan's love for golf starting to fade?

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The origins of golf in Japan are reportedly traced to a group of British immigrants who played the game at Kobe Golf Club in the early 1900s.

Under the direction of Arthur Hasketh Groom, the first nine-hole course opened in May 1903; in less than a year, the course was expanded to 18 holes.

The Tokyo Golf Club in Komazawa was later established in 1913 to serve Japanese domestic golfers. However, the Japan Golf Association did not come into being until 1924.

As the game gained popularity, an increasing number of courses were built, but progress was hindered by the Great Depression of the 1930s and the country's anti-Western development in the 1930s and 1940s.

Only 23 studies had been created when the United States of America declared war on Japan due to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, many of these studies were approved for military use or were returned to agriculture.

Japan began to build courses and as post-war conditions improved, and by the mid-1950s, there were more courses available than ever before.

A few years later, Torakichi Nakamura and Koichi Ono won the Japan Cup (now known as the World Cup) in 1957, marking the beginning of Japan's love affair with the game and the country's first professional golfer.

More than 400 courses were offered in 1964, and more than 1,000 courses were offered in the early 1970s.

Over the next three decades, the trend continued, and in 2009, more than 2,400 lessons were offered to golfers in Japan, ranking second only to the United States and the United Kingdom.

Hideki Matsuyama's 2021 Masters victory did not elicit the same kind of response as previous victories, although the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was still being felt at the time in Japan.

In 2023, a base of at least five million golfers came out to play per month with October seeing a peak of 8.91m players, while May and November also recorded more than eight million golfers.

While the numbers in Japan still look good there is some concern that Japan has not yet benefited from the participation in golf that occurred in the West after the pandemic restrictions were lifted.

Some signs of growth need to be interpreted in context when it comes to Japan, and it doesn't really make sense for the country to continue building golf courses at the same rate.

Golfers in Japan are well-resourced, although the cost of participation remains a major barrier to participation for many potential players.

Japanese clubs tend to be buttoned up and traditional which is not something that will encourage younger players to take up the game.

As it stands, the numbers of golfers are slowly dwindling as older players are unable to continue playing and the numbers of new players taking up the game are also dwindling.

With over 2000 courses and nearly nine million active players, it would be unfair to say that golf in Japan is in trouble.

But given the density of courses, Japanese golf could probably do more to market itself as the mecca of the game.