The Academy for the Japan Edition is a named, on-record panel of six — architects, writers, an agronomist, a photographer, a player-architect — working across Kanto, Kansai, Hokkaido and beyond. Members are listed in full. Recommendations are welcomed; selections are curated.
A PGA of America-certified professional with two decades of playing and teaching across Japan and the United States. Tatsuro brings the player's and teacher's eye to every Atlas assessment, and walks every course he writes about.
A passionate golfer and golf critic. Co-founder of the Guide and the editorial voice behind much of its writing. Believes a course is a landscape first, a test second.
The Academy assembles annually in spring. Each member submits a shortlist drawn from their region of Japan. The shortlists become a longlist of roughly forty courses.
From there: a summer and autumn of walking. Members revisit candidates on foot, without carts, without scoring grids. They write to one another. They argue. By October, a draft Atlas exists.
The Founders finalise. Names go on every entry. A course may be added; none is removed without a stated reason in the Journal.
Restoration consultant at Tokyo Golf Club and Kasumigaseki East.
House photographer for the Guide; archive of every Alison course in Japan.
Native-grass and water-conservation specialist working out of Hyogo.
Author of "The Imported Game" (2022), a history of Western architects in pre-war Japan.
Twenty-year columnist for Choice Magazine. Refuses to use a scoring grid.
Restoration lead at Otaru CC; designer of two new layouts in southern Hokkaido.