[/floatl]Asahi: Foreign sports club backed into a corner
A renowned sports club for non-Japanese residents, set up more than 130 years ago by a Briton who introduced Japan to golf courses, is now struggling to survive. Kobe Regatta & Athletic Club (KR&AC) has played a significant role in the development of modern sports in Japan. But due to a dwindling membership and other unfavorable conditions, KR&AC is trying to rebuild itself as a community-based sports club, the officials said...The club was established in 1870 by Arthur H. Groom, who later founded the nation's first golf course on Mount Rokkosan in Hyogo Prefecture, and other members... After the status of Kobe port was downgraded, foreign consulates, which had provided many members for the club, were closed or moved out. The number of consulate offices fell from 16 in 1966 to six in 1993. Two years later, the Great Hanshin Earthquake leveled parts of Kobe and killed more than 6,400 people. It also fueled the exodus of diplomats. The Panamanian Consulate General is the only consulate office remaining in Kobe. Membership at KR&AC has dropped to about 240, about one-third of the 700 or more members who belonged to the club before World War II...more...
The club's website says that the moving force behind the foundation of the club was actually Alexander Cameron Sim although Groom was on the original committee.
