Lockyer discusses golf’s development in Japan
For those living in Japan in the 1980s, flying to Hawaii and staying at a four-star hotel to play golf was cheaper than playing a single round of eighteen holes on a local Japanese course. Angus Lockyer, a professor from the University of London, traced golf’s evolution in Japan from the 1880s to the present in a lecture on Wednesday, arguing that the sport became embedded in Japanese culture less as an athletic pastime than as a networking tool.
Golf began to appear in popular artistic and cultural depictions of Japan by the 1930s. It was known as a leisure activity and associated with modernity, although most people at the time did not play the sport.
Elites looked to golf courses as places to connect with other Japanese and international leaders, and spent their time making business deals rather than sinking putts, Lockyer said.
During the last years of World War II, golf lost some of its popularity due to its connection to the West. Japanese players had to put away their clubs or golf illicitly. During the American occupation of Japan from 1945 to 1952, the courses were reopened, used in part by American military personnel.
After the Korean War, which helped to accelerate Japan’s postwar economy, the number of Japanese golfers increased almost 120-fold, to 12 million players in 1985 from 111,000 players in 1940, resulting in overflow on courses. Working class Japanese men could be found practicing their swing on driving ranges as they prepared for the rise up the corporate ladder, Lockyer said.
In the 1990s, however, Japan’s economic malaise took a toll on the interest in golf, and one-third of Japanese golf courses went bankrupt a decade later. In 2009, Goldman Sachs owned the largest portfolio of golf courses in Japan.
Lockyer attributed the initial increase in interest to the sport’s rebranding as “corporate entertainment.” Demand drove the interest in golf in three stages: Korean War building projects in the 1950s, repurposing of corporate land in the 1960s and 1970s and the investment of “silly money” in the 1980s. The continued building projects were responsible for the over-supply of courses in the 1990s. Membership fees at the most exclusive golf clubs totaled up to $1 million.
“Golf, with that kind of momentum behind it, creates problems,” Lockyer said.
During its boom, Japanese popular culture reflected golf’s popularity. One Japanese manga series described a portly young man who, over the course of 24 issues, honed his game and beats actor Jack Nicholson in a competition.
Because of its prominent role in popular culture, controversies erupted over golf.
“Almost every scandal since the ’70s has been embedded in the Japanese culture of golf,” Lockyer said.
Lockyer cited illicit cash transfers that occurred on golf courses’ 17th hole, which was too far away to be seen from the clubhouse. Many involved in the Japanese environmental movement in the 1980s also opposed golf courses’ negative ecological effects.
Participation rates are declining for men and are currently estimated to be around 20 to 30 percent of the Japanese male population, Lockyer said. Although corporations are targeting female golfers with increased advertising efforts, female participation has remained at a steady 3 percent.
American firms are attempting to market golf in Japan by shortening the time it takes to play a round. Previously, a round of golf could take up 16 hours, due to extravagant meals at the course and long commutes.
Lockyer also addressed the issue of women caddies in Japan. While caddies in exclusive clubs in the United States and Europe are typically male, the opposite is true in Japan. Lockyer said this could be a direct result of efforts to introduce women into the labor force during the American occupation.
At the end of the lecture, Lockyer contended that golf is a “form” or “organism” that molds to its particular environment. As result, golf cultures are remarkably different in the United States, Scotland and Japan, or even between New Hampshire and California.
Lockyer said in an interview that his negative experience playing golf in Japan fueled his desire to research the topic.
“Research is always a little biographical,” he said. “You have to have some kind of connection or curiosity about something.”
History professor Richard Kremer said that he appreciated Lockyer’s discussion of golf’s broader role within Japanese history.
“I’ve been to a lot of history department lectures, and I can’t think of one like this that appeals to the history of athletics as well as the sort of other questions that historians deal with,” Kremer said.
Hanover resident Ryan Moran said he enjoyed the lecture for its novelty, but wished that Lockyer had spent more time discussing golf in Japan during occupation.
Jackie Chen ’16 said she was surprised to hear that golf in Japan was linked to transformations in Japanese society.
“I expected it to be a really niche subject,” she said.
Lockyer hopes to publish the results of his research in a book within three years.