The Golf Club Index

According to the Bank of Japan, in May, the total value of all Japanese land inched up by 1.4% in 2005. In deed average Tokyo land prices have been heading north for some months--after 15 years in the other direction.

How do we know that things are really looking up? Apparently, Japan's secondary market in golf-course memberships is soaring as well. Such memberships have long been treated by speculators as a proxy for the overall property market, as they are regularly traded even by folks who, like Uncle Swint, have no interest in ever hitting the links.

During the "Bubble Economy" there was a uniquely Japanese episode of speculation in golf club memberships. At the peak the total market value of golf club memberships was about $200 billion (that is billions not millions). There was and is a Nikkei Golf Club Membership Index.

As in the golf-membership heyday of the 1980s, the most hotly traded memberships in the current boom are for clubs nearest to the capital. Thus membership at the Yokohama Country Club (a mere 40 minutes' drive from Uncle Swint’s house) has more than doubled in value since January, reaching ¥13.5m ($120,000).