Japan Market Gets Exclusive Products

In America, the words “hot import” would probably be most closely identified with cars bearing the names Honda, Toyota, or Lexus. The tables are turned, however, when it comes to golf clubs. The hot imports in the Japanese golf markets come from U.S. companies like Callaway and TaylorMade.

If you’ve seen the movie “Lost in Translation,” then you’ll likely remember the brief but beautiful scene in which Bill Murray’s character tees off toward the towering visage of Mt. Fuji. What kind of driver do you think the American visitor was using to put the ball in play? While it might have been something from a top Japanese golf company, like Mizuno or Bridgestone, it was quite possibly a product made for the Japanese market by a U.S. club company.

It is well-known that the Japan golf market is one of the world’s biggest and most competitive. Since land is scarce in Japan, there isn’t much room for golf courses, and you’ve no doubt seen pictures of the country’s multilevel driving ranges.

As a former co-worker who spent a lot of time in the Land of the Rising Sun once told me, “Japan is different.” I won’t go into all the various things that statement was meant to cover, but it holds true for golf equipment – both the designs of the clubs and the way they are marketed.

American-based golf companies like Callaway, TaylorMade, and Titleist do a lot of business in Japan. And while they sell their entire U.S. product lines there, they also have a handful of Japan-only products. These products are designed with the preferences of Japanese golfers at the forefront, and are usually only sold in Japan and other Far East countries like South Korea.

Some companies, like Callaway, were quick to cater to Japan with products that were subtly tweaked – different paint colors and finishes on clubheads, lighter shafts and smaller grips, for example. But now an increasing number of products are exclusively designed for Japanese golfers.

How are these products different from the companies’ U.S. products? In drivers, the Japan-only products are about distance, distance, and distance. In general, Japanese golfers have slower swing speeds and play less often than their U.S. counterparts. This has allowed U.S. companies to make even hotter, thinner driver faces for their Japan-only products. Since the golfers using these drivers have slower swing speeds, they’re less likely to cave in an ultrathin driver face. And since they play less often, there’s less chance of those ultrathin faces wearing out too quickly.

Irons are built differently, too. The dominant grass used on golf courses in Japan is Korai. This thick, lush grass helps the ball sit up higher in the fairway than it does on the grasses typically used in America. So irons designed for the Japan market have thicker soles and more bounce to help the clubheads glide through the grass without getting caught. And the lofts are even stronger to please the distance-concscious Japanese golfer. Doesn’t everyone want to hit their pitching wedge 150 yards?

In terms of how clubs are marketed in Japan, a Bag Drop operative from TaylorMade points out an important distinction. In the U.S., most golfers want to play what they see their favorite tour players using. So the most expensive, heavily marketed equipment tends toward forged irons and “tour preferred” drivers.

But in Japan, golfers are more aware that there’s a lot of difference between the pros and the rest of us. Rather than pretending that they’re just a few extra range buckets away from the tour, Japanese golfers prefer equipment that is packed with technology to help them play better. In the U.S., we might call that “buying a game.” But you know what? It’s probably a more realistic way for 90 percent of golfers to buy equipment.

So while TaylorMade does OK with sales of drivers like the 400cc r7 Tour Preferred in Japan, it also offers the r7XR – a larger driver that is more forgiving. And while Callaway is generating a lot of buzz stateside with the Fusion FT-3 driver, it has a pair of Japan-only drivers in the ERC Hot and the X-18 driver. The ERC Hot is similar to the FT-3 except it is, you guessed it, even hotter. And the X-18 driver isn’t like anything in the Callaway U.S. lineup. It more closely resembles the company’s Fusion fairway woods, with a metal body and a composite carbon crown, but in a much larger club.

Will any of these products ever make it to the U.S., outside of pricey eBay imports? It’s possible. The MACTEC NVG driver that MacGregor introduced in America earlier this year is a beefed-up version of a driver that MacGregor Japan had a great deal of success with last year.

The wild card in the Japan market, at least for drivers, is the rules change that the R&A and USGA adopted a couple years ago that bans drivers with a Coefficient of Restitution (COR) above .830 from use for handicap purposes after Jan. 1, 2006. Many of the top drivers on the Japanese market are above that limit. Will golfers give up their hot drivers and throttle back next year? Or will they keep pushing for ever-hotter drivers and more distance? In the U.S., the battle appears to have been won, as the tour-obsessed average golfer has given in to the USGA’s performance limitations. But will Japanese golfers keep digging the long ball even after the calendar rolls over to 2006?

I hope Japanese golfers keep playing hot drivers. Why? Because I think it’s great that they realize that pro tour players, not weekend warriors, are the ones who are shooting 59s and hitting driver-wedge on 450-yard par-4s. Meanwhile, the average Japanese golfer just wants to have a little more fun, hit the ball a little farther and straighter, and allow the club engineers to push the boundaries with fresh, innovative designs. Hmmm, maybe I should be scouring eBay for r7XR and ERC Hot listings.