The economy is so healthy it's bad for business, according to Mitsuo Hirose, who heads golf operations in Japan for John Grayken's Lone Star Funds.
"It used to be we'd just buy and buy," Hirose, 70, said of the company's roster of 111 Japanese golf courses. "But now, because prices went up so much, we have to be very careful about acquisitions."
Lone Star's Pacific Golf Group International Holdings KK lost 36 percent of its market value in the three months after Feb. 16, when it abandoned a goal of owning or operating 200 courses by 2010, citing increased acquisition costs. Property values in Japan rose in 2006 for the first time in 16 years as expansion of the economy drew more foreign investors.