Uniqlo’s billionaire founder is demanding access to Hawaii’s scarce water so he can stop his luxury golf courses from turning brown, per a new report.
Tadashi Yanai, Japan’s richest man, had launched a legal battle before PGA Tour organizers moved the kick-off event from his Kapalua Plantation Course, saying the lawns were not up to standard.
The PGA Tour had started every year on the Plantation course at Kapalua since 1999 except for 2001, when the season began in Australia and then went to Kapalua on west Maui.
In June, organizers cited the ‘ongoing drought conditions, water conservation requirements, agronomic conditions and logistical challenges’ as a reason to move the event elsewhere.
Amid Hawaii’s drought, Yanai’s golf courses have been left baked and brown from lack of irrigation and forced to reduce their rates by hundreds of dollars.
But the Japanese clothing mogul has argued the drought is not the issue, and accused Maui officials of mismanaging the water supply and causing the scarcity, as reported SF Gate.
Yanai’s company, Ty Management Corp, filed a lawsuit in August against the Maui Land & Pineapple Company Inc. which owns the Honokohau ditch system that provides the golf courses with water.
Uniqlo’s billionaire founder Tadashi Yanai’s company filed a lawsuit demanding more access to water in Maui for his golf courses
Tadashi Yanai had launched a legal battle before PGA Tour organizers moved the kick-off event from his Kapalua Plantation Course, seen above
Amid Hawaii’s drought, Yanai’s golf courses have been left baked and brown from lack of irrigation and forced to reduce their rates by hundreds of dollars.
The lawsuit includes images of the brown golf courses and claims the company ‘has abused the trust of residents, farmers, and businesses in Kapalua and parts of West Maui, all of whom are now being starved for irrigation water.’
The lawsuit claims the Maui company has ‘allowed the Ditch System to fall into a state of demonstrable disrepair. That disrepair, not any act of God, or force of nature, or other thing, is why users who need it are currently without water.’
‘That disrepair, not any act of God, or force of nature, or other thing, is why users who need it are currently without water,’ the lawsuit says.
The suit was filed alongside homeowners and a farm in the area.
The plaintiffs say the lack of water is putting them at risk of wildfires and decreasing the value of their properties.
However Maui Land & Pineapple Company Inc has filed a countersuit denying the claims and accusing the golf courses of using more than 11 million gallons of water for irrigation in June that was to protect the entire community from fires.
The company’s suit says: ‘The problem is not MLP’s system; the problem is there has not been enough rain in the past year to supply stream water to all off-stream users in West Maui.
‘State law is clear: Public trust uses, such as in-stream flows and drinking water, take priority over private irrigation.’
The billionaire’s lawsuit includes images of the brown golf courses and claims the company ‘has abused the trust of residents, farmers, and businesses in Kapalua and parts of West Maui, all of whom are now being starved for irrigation water’
Yanai’s company filed a lawsuit in August against the Maui Land & Pineapple Company Inc. which owns the Honokohau ditch system, pictured, that provides the gold courses with water
The suit was filed alongside homeowners and a farm in the area. Tadashi Yanai, chairman and chief executive officer of Fast Retailing Co., arrives for a news conference in Tokyo, Japan, on Thursday, April 11, 2024
MLP said it has made “certain repairs and improvements to the ditch system” as directed by the Commission on Water Resource Management and that all its actions are ‘consistent with the agreements between MLP and the golf courses.’
Maui has been dealing with drought conditions that have affected 140,000 residents, and water conservation mandates are aimed at prioritizing needs of the island.
Kapalua Resort closed the Plantation on Sept. 2 for two months with hopes of saving the golf course with what little irrigation it was allowed.
Yanai’s company said Kapalua’s irrigation has central control systems and water usage is based on science.
A company spokesman said Kapalua has followed every mandate, even when MLP and the Hawaii Water Service unexpectedly imposed an irrigation ban as the course was preparing to take measure to save it.
