Japan: Better economy · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Lee at the Tokyo Times blog looks first to the Nikkei Index's highest close in five years, then to Japanese golf club membership fees as a sign of the country's recovering economy.
“Mirroring the rise of land prices,” Lee writes, “the average membership cost of around 300 courses in the east of the country used to be 2.7 million yen (13,000 pound), but since November that has jumped considerably to a rather more hefty 3.5 million (17,000 pound).”