22/07/2024
Global Golf – Japan Wants A Piece Of The Action!
Guess what? The Japanese want to be part of the internationalisation of the global game and have taken some serious steps to help this goal materialise.
The thrust of this ambitious initiative will be led by Yutaka Morohoshi, 77 (pictured in the middle) who has been appointed the chairman and CEO of the Japan Golf Tour Organization (JGTO).
Morohoshi is a sports heavyweight in Japan with an impressive career in sports administration. His expertise spans multiple Olympic Games, seven in total, where he served in various capacities. Morohoshi's influence also extended to the world of football where he was instrumental in Japan's successful campaign to co-host the 2002 FIFA World Cup alongside South Korea, a milestone event for Asian football.
So, he has all the credentials to “internationalise” the JGTO and he seems all cranked up and ready to go!
"The only possible way for this tour, at this time in Japan and under the current economic conditions, to survive, is to go after money that's outside of Japan. It's very difficult to bring major sponsors here at this point. We have just been overtaken by Germany in terms of GDP, falling from third to fourth place," said Morohoshi.
The Japanese sports visionary continued: “What do I do? How much money is there out in the world? The US PGA Tour, DP World Tour, Asian Tour - they're much, much bigger. In fact, in Japanese yen, the US PGA Tour has ¥80 billion a year for prize money. We're just ¥3 billion. It's not even a comparison. We're just a tiny little fly."
"So faced with that reality, the only way I could make this tournament richer and ensure that the 194 players who belong to JGTO are well rewarded is to bring money from outside of Japan – it’s the only way we can survive is for JGTO to become internationalised, and that's what I've been trying to do."
Morohoshi’s internationalisation campaign is underway with the JGTO trying to get more tournaments hosted abroad. "One of the first things I did when I went to the Masters (Tournament in April) was talk to the US PGA Tour, DP World Tour, Australia, Asian Tour, and other tours," said Morohoshi.
"I proposed let's do things together. I want to take advantage of the fact that Japanese companies are doing very well outside of Japan - we’ll go to their headquarters in Tokyo or Osaka, wherever they are, and see if we can find sponsorship among these Japanese companies. When that happens, we could have reciprocity, and that's one approach. Another approach is to form a tour - not in the old sense of the word, but a much looser one that encompasses Japan out west, all the way beyond India.”
He added: "We are looking at covering a geographical area that includes one-half of the world's population. That is a huge potential market for any corporation, be it American, European, or from anywhere else. No company can ignore a market with half of the world’s population.”
The U.S. educated Morohoshi who is also a professor is confident that under his leadership, the JGTO will succeed. "So, I think we’ll be able to do quite a bit of joint ventures, co-sanctioned events, tri-sanctioned events, or whatever," concluded Morohoshi.
