Golf club’s denial of membership to former foreign citizen not illegal: Japan court – The Mainichi

6 comments

1. The Aigi Country Club in Kani, Gifu sound like a very agreeable cabal of Old Boys.

   The nice chap in the article would be better off not troubling them with his hard-earned money.

2. Well, it’s pretty much impossible to give the benefit of the doubt on this one. And court sanctioned to boot. The judge even informed them there’s no need to stretch for other reasons to deny him membership, his ethnic heritage is quite sufficient.

3. Odd ruling… Take your money elsewhere

4. In my experience, the richer people in Japan are, the more racist they are.

5. The guy can be proud of himself. He dodged a bullet there and with the bit of publicity, we all know now, which golf court to avoid and to actively not recommend. Well done!

6. An important point that’s missing from the source article in referring to him as a “former foreign national” is that ethnic Chinese and Koreans born in Japan are not given citizenship at birth. They are given special permanent residence status and are considered foreign nationals. They have to apply for naturalization if they want citizenship. Basically, the golf club rejected him because he isn’t pure Japanese and the court ruled that such discrimination based on race or ethnicity is legal.