Japan's Olympic Golf Course will grant women full membership rights to play at the venue after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has threatened the golf course to scrap its Tokyo 2020 status if it does not admit women to golf in the area. The Kasumigaseki Country Club will host the men's and women's tournaments in July and August 2020.
The Golf Course located in Saitama prefecture has agreed to the new policy, after previously ruling that women can't play on Sundays. IOC Vice President, John Coates said that he only knew of the Kasumigaseki's old rules by the end of last year.
"We made quite clear that there has to be gender equality," Coates told Reuters. "If they can't achieve the gender equality, then we have to get another course, but the organizers are very confident that they will." He added that there's plenty of time to move to another golf course if the Kasumigaseki Country Club denies entry to women.
The golf club held several meetings and finally had a unanimous approval from the board to admit women in its membership status. President of the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee, Yoshirō Mori thanked the golf course management for allowing women to play the sport without prejudice.
The club's policy had contradicted with the Olympic charter which states that people should have the right to practice sport "without discrimination of any kind," The Guardian says. Coates said gender equality is a primary principle of the Olympic Movement and an important part of Olympic Agenda 2020.
Meanwhile, preparations are sent underway for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics with the organizers to finalize the budget this year. Last December, Japan has set the budget to $16.8 billion and promised to have it lower in cooperation with the IOC.
To save more costs, the country has announced to have medals be made out of recycled metals from old cell phones. Japan, who acknowledges its lack of resources, would like to take a step in promoting environmental ways to make the 2020 Olympics happen.
