Japan Prime Minister Gifts Donald Trump With a $3,755 Golf Club That’s Made in China

During a recent meeting between the two heads of state, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe gave U.S. President-elect Donald Trump a beautiful golden golf club as a gift.

According to Golf Digest, the club is a “Honma Beres S-05 with 9.5 degrees of loft with a 5S Armrq Infinity stiff shaft,” which reportedly costs almost four grand.

“The driver, which sells for $3,755, comes in either a black- or gold-colored head,” wrote Golf Digest. “Fittingly, given Mr. Trump’s penchant for adorning rooms in gilded gold, the Prime Minister opted for the latter.”

It is interesting to note, however, that while the token may have been made in Japan, it was produced by a Chinese company.

According to The Japan Times, the club was manufactured by Honma Golf Ltd., a company that, while formerly Japanese-owned, has been acquired by a Chinese company since 2010.

Japanese news site Sports Hochi (via Peoples Daily), for its part, commented that the gift had may have served as a great conversation piece as the scheduled 45-minute meeting lasted for about an hour and a half.

University of Tokyo professor Tomoo Marukawa said that this fact may even give the present more significance.

He pointed out that, by presenting a gift that “represents globalization to a man who encourages protectionism,” the golden golf club might as well be viewed as a veiled warning from Japan.

Abe’s meeting with Trump last week, which was heavily criticized for the presence of Trump’s daughter Ivanka, was the president-elect’s first meeting with a head of state after his election to office.

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