【英语中国】日本Yonex公司瞄准中国高尔夫市场

While China appears poised to overtake Japan as the world's second biggest economy, it might also beat Japan in the business of golf.

As China's many newly affluent citizens are expected to turn to the ultimate leisure activity, overseas sports equipment companies are setting up shop to get an early bite out of one of the few golf markets still in bloom.

Japanese sports-equipment maker Yonex Co. said it established a subsidiary in China to make and sell golf items. The Shanghai-based subsidiary, capitalized at $1.5 million, or 128.4 million yen, was established on July 19.

The offshoot will feature products specially created for Chinese customers as well as goods from its regular catalog sold in other overseas markets, said Hiroko Kobayashi, a Yonex spokeswoman. She declined to specify the exact nature of the products.

Yonex's plan to expand into China comes at a time when other golf markets have either contracted or hit a plateau as consumers cut back on luxury hobbies.

Golf is still a reigning sport in Japan, considered to be the second largest golf market after the U.S. in terms of golf demand, with more than 9 million active players, according to a March KPMG survey. But the country's fragile economic recovery is unlikely to lead to any growth spurts in the domestic golf market.

While Yonex said golf sales in Japan enjoyed a boost on the backs of well-received performances by its cast of sponsored athletes, including Ryo Ishikawa, overall net sales of sporting goods that include badminton and tennis products were largely flat, falling 0.3% to 33.46 million yen compared with the previous year, according to its March earnings results.

Instead, the potential for real growth is in China where golf course operators are churning out bigger and fancier greens like the sprawling 12-course complex Mission Hills located in Shenzhen. Still, China's golf market is a ways off from hitting its stride with sky-high membership fees currently restricting the sport to the wealthiest sliver of the population.

But recent changes, like the sport's official welcome to the Olympics in 2016, and a rush of developers mowing new greens, could see a wave of newly flush Chinese take to the sport. When they do, Yonex will be there ready to help them pick out a club.

Yoree Koh

在中国看来有望超过日本成为全球第二大经济体之际，它还可能在高尔夫球领域击败日本。

预计中国的很多新贵将加入这一终 休闲活动，在这种情况下，海外运动装备生产商纷纷来华设店，以便在中国这个目前为数不多几个依然蓬勃发展的高尔夫市场之一抢占先机。

Associated Press在俄亥俄州8月7日举办的Bridgestone高尔夫球邀请赛上，为Yonex公司代言的石川辽（右）正在准备第18洞的比赛。日本运动装备生产商Yonex Co.说，已经在中国设立了一个子公司来生产销售高尔夫用品。这家子公司位于上海，成立于7月19日，总资本为150万美元（合1.284亿日圆）。

Yonex的发言人小林广子(Hiroko Kobayashi)说，该子公司将提供为中国客户特别打造的产品，同时也会提供在其他海外市场上销售的常规产品。她拒绝说明产品的确切性质。

Yonex计划向中国扩张业务之际，其他高尔夫市场要么萎缩，要么因消费者减少奢侈性爱好而到了平台期。

据毕马威会计事务所(KPMG)3月份的一份调查，高尔夫运动在日本仍是一种占主导地位的运动项目，以高尔夫需求计算，日本被视为是仅次于美国的第二大高尔夫市场，有900多万活跃的球手。不过，日本疲弱的经济复苏不太可能给国内高尔夫市场带来任何增长。

尽管Yonex说，在石川辽(Ryo Ishikawa)等代言运动员的出色成绩推动下，日本的高尔夫用品销售获得了提振，但据Yonex 3月份的收益报告，包括羽毛球和网球产品在内的体育用品净销售总额基本持平，较去年减少了0.3%，至3,346万日圆。

相反，真正增长的潜力在中国，中国的高尔夫球场运营商在推出更大、更漂亮的果岭，比如深圳占地面积很大的、有12个球场的观澜湖(Mission Hills)。尽管如此，由于目前不菲的会员费使高尔夫运动仍局限于最富有的极少数人之中，中国的高尔夫球市场还远没有迎来大发展时期。

不过，最近的各种变化有望使一批中国新贵加入到这项运动中，这些变化包括高尔夫正式成为2016年奥运会比赛项目，以及开发商纷纷建设新的果岭。届时，Yonex将等在那里帮中国人选球杆。

Yoree Koh