The Tokyo-based firm that runs the Kawana Hotel, an internationally known resort in Izu, Shizuoka Prefecture, filed for court protection Tuesday with the aim of rehabilitating itself under different ownership, hotel officials said.
The seaside hotel, once host to a Japan-Russia summit and featuring two major golf courses often touted as the best in Asia, is estimated to have liabilities of some 67 billion yen, according to credit-research agency Teikoku Databank Ltd.
The hotel and golf courses will continue operating, according to the officials of the management company, which bears the same name as the hotel. The firm filed for protection under the Civil Rehabilitation Law with the Tokyo District Court.
The economic slump dampened enthusiasm for expensive golf and hit earnings of group companies of the hotel, including Okura & Co., the officials said.
In 1998, Okura & Co., an affiliated general trading house, went bankrupt. Kawana Hotel has carried out a rigorous restructuring, including a 40 percent cut in employee wages, but apparently could not stem its financial losses.
Around 500 companies have membership contracts at the hotel's golf courses, but demand has dropped.
The hotel, established in 1928 by officials of the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, was the venue for the April 1998 meeting of Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto and Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
In 1954, Hollywood actress Marilyn Monroe and baseball legend Joe DiMaggio spent their honeymoon there.