NSSK’s impending turnaround investment in Japan’s Professional Golf Tour follows a deal sourcing process that hinged on CEO Jun Tsusaka’s love for the sport.

“I’ve been going to the New Zealand Open for years to participate in their pro-am tournament, and through that I’ve got to know the top 20 money winners in Japan who are invited to play,” said Tsusaka, who founded NSSK in 2014. “Every time, they would tell us what works and what doesn’t.”

The 2026 tournament was held in early March with Tsusaka and professional partner Mikumu Horikawa – who has competed on the US PGA Tour as well as the Japan Tour – tying for third in a field of 156 pairings. By that point, NSSK had spent nearly a year convincing stakeholders that it could extract more value from a sport in which monetisation doesn’t reflect popularity.

“If you turn back the clock 40 years, some Japan Tour events offered more prize money than the PGA Tour – purses were so good, players like Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, and Seve Ballesteros would come here,” said Tsusaka. “That changed, on one hand, because of Japan’s years in the economic doldrums, and on the other, because they didn’t evolve the business the way you see in sports around the world.”

Prime target

In 2025, Japan Tour prize money amounted to approximately JPY 3bn (USD 19.9m) across 25 tournaments, with one event offering JPY 213m. This pales in comparison to the USD 482.4m and USD 153m paid out on the PGA Tour and European Tour, each of which held 42 tournaments. Prize money for the Tour Championship alone was USD 40m. The four major championships are not included.

Yet Japan had 10.2m registered and independent golfers in 2023 – half of Asia ex-Oceania’s golfing population and equal to two-thirds of the European total – according to a report published by the R&A, which organises various Europe-based tournaments. NSSK estimates golf is one of Japan’s largest sports markets, worth around JPY 1.4tn per year, and it expects to see steady growth.

“When you think about the demographics of golf, it’s people in their 40s to their 60s and 20-30-year-olds who can afford to play,” said Tsusaka. “It’s the perfect destination for advertising capital, because these are people who buy homes, cars, and watches and who go on vacation.”

NSSK has agreed to commit capital from its fourth fund, which recently closed on JPY 250bn, to a newly formed entity that will operate the commercial activities of the Japan Tour. This is a special situations investment, with the private equity firm injecting growth capital on a staged basis as it looks to build a sustainable and profitable business. Tsusaka suggested that around JPY 20bn could be put to work.

The new entity will be responsible for overall planning and operation of the Japan Tour, management of sponsorships, broadcasting and streaming rights, and driving marketing and fan engagement initiatives. There are plans to increase the number of tournaments to 30 – plus 15 on the development tour – and improve prize money. But the most ambitious targets involve content.

Content is king

“Other sports tell a whole-season story and sell media rights around that, enhancing engagement with fans and sponsors. The Japan Tour has operated as a collection of standalone tournaments. Media rights are sold individually, and if you sponsor, you don’t participate horizontally as an umbrella sponsor, you do everything tournament by tournament. We are going to change all of that,” said Tsusaka.

He envisages doing for Japanese golf what the Netflix series Formula 1: Drive to Survive has done for motorsport, complementing sports coverage with behind-the-scenes action and stories focused on the 200 professionals. Much of NSSK’s capital will fund spending on data, media content, and digitalisation.

The most relevant example in the private equity firm’s portfolio is Bunkasha Publishing, an 80-year-old manga business it acquired in 2017. Digitalisation was central to the investment thesis as the entire library was transitioned from paper to the cloud. With digital accounting for about 70% of overall earnings, NSSK was able to exit via trade sale in 2020, securing a 3x return and a 40% IRR.

“That whole play was taking an out-of-date business model and updating it and optimising the value of each piece of content. The content was the writers and the manga they produced. In golf, the content is golfers,” Tsusaka explained, adding that the main key performance indicator is ensuring everyone in the ecosystem – from golfers and caddies to fans and sponsors, as well as investors – benefit.

As private equity investment in sports has taken off globally in the past five years, Japan has seen little activity beyond deals involving golf course operators. NSSK has looked at opportunities in baseball, football, and basketball, but ultimately moved for the Japan Tour partly because owning the commercial rights holder for an entire sport was preferable to buying a single franchise.

“If you own one of Japan’s 12 baseball teams, there’s only so much you can do to change how the league works,” said Tsusaka. “In golf, we are the only player in town.”