The chairman of the Japanese golf club set to host the sport at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics said it is bewildered by requests to lift its ban on women becoming full members.
Kasumigaseki Country Club in Saitama, north of Tokyo, postponed a decision to review its membership policy following a board meeting on Tuesday after the club came under fire from Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike.
Koike said she felt “uncomfortable that women cannot become full members in the 21st century,” while the International Olympic Committee also expressed concerns about the rule.
Tokyo organizers have also filed a written request to the golf club to change the rule, a Tokyo 2020 official told reporters yesterday.
A meeting to discuss requests to drop its ban on full female members ended with no firm decision, according to public broadcaster NHK.
“It’s extremely annoying the situation has evolved into what it is so quickly,” board chairman Kiichi Kimura told local media.
“There was no decision and we will discuss it further,” he said.
“We are baffled, that’s our situation right now,” Kimura said.
“We agreed [to host the Olympic golf competitions] at their request, but we never made a bid” to host it, he said.
The row comes after calls to move the 2020 Olympic tournament from the private club because of the rule, which allows women to play from Monday to Saturday, but bars them from becoming full members and from playing on Sundays.
Yukihiko Nunomura, Tokyo 2020’s chief operating officer, who was briefed about the meeting, later told reporters he expected that the club “will move towards operating with gender equality in mind.”
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