Japan Cements Position As Asia’s Biggest Golf Sponsorship Market With Zozotown Deal

The inaugural Zozo Championship, which will be staged jointly with the Japan Golf Tour, is scheduled to take place from 24th to 27th October next year at the Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club, just outside Tokyo.

Officials from North America’s premier golf circuit confirmed that the tournament will have a purse of US$9.75 million and a field of 78 – plus ten designated players by the Japan Golf Tour, and eight others with special exemptions.

The event will form part of the PGA Tour’s calendar in Asia, which also includes stops in South Korea and China. The tournament in Japan will replace one in Malaysia.

The PGA Tour added that the move was also driven by the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, where golf will feature at the Games for the fourth time after returning at Rio 2016.

“Japan’s passion for golf is widely recognised and something our stars have experienced first-hand through various events held here and the support of standout PGA Tour players like Hideki Matsuyama,” said Ty Votaw, the PGA Tour’s executive vice president of international affairs.

“[This] announcement further strengthens our presence in Asia and certainly comes at an opportune time with golf set to follow its highly successful return to the Olympics in Rio when Tokyo hosts the 2020 Games.”

Yusaku Maezawa, the billionaire founder and president of Zozotown, who is poised to become Space X’s first moon tourist, added, “When the PGA first approached us to discuss about this tournament, I was surprised because the PGA Tour has a long history and we are a newer company. So we are extremely honoured to host it and would like to make it as exciting of an event as possible.”

“We are a company that deals with fashion and IT. We would like to abundantly use those for the tournament, making it fashionable and technological, something the world has not seen before.”

According to the ASN Index, Japan has the largest market share (34.8%, ~US$98.2m) for golf sponsorships in Asia since Q116, this is almost twice that of the next two biggest markets in South Korea (15.7%) and China (15.6%). Japan has arguably the most established domestic golf leagues in Asia which helps support this statistic.:

• the men’s Japan Golf Tour, founded in 1973 and administered by the JGTO, with 30 tour events throughout the year
• and the Japanese LPGA for women’s professional golfers, which is even older, in its 51st year, with 38 tournaments

Q418 has been particularly strong for the Japanese golf index (Men and Women), with quarterly investment reaching US$41.4m, almost 1.7x rise from the quarterly average of US$24.7m, and the latest Zozotown deal solidifies this rise.