Tokyo governor urges golf venue to allow women members

[January 13, 2017]    (Reuters) - Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike has asked the Kasumigaseki Country Club, venue of golf competition of the 2020 Olympic Games, to admit women as full members.

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike speaks in front of Tokyo 2020 Olympics emblem during an interview with Reuters at Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building in Tokyo, Japan, October 12, 2016. REUTERS/Toru Hanai

"I feel very uncomfortable about women not being able to become a regular member in this era," Koike told reporters on Friday.

The club situated in Saitama Prefecture, northwest of Tokyo, also bars women from playing there on Sundays, according to a Kyodo news agency report.

Last year, Muirfield golf club lost its place on the rotation of venues for the British Open after a ballot in May rejected the lifting of a ban on women members.

The historic course close to Edinburgh, which has retained a male-only membership policy since it was founded in 1744, will hold a second vote to decide on the issue following a public outcry.

(Reporting by Amlan Chakraborty in New Delhi; Editing by John O'Brien)

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