The Cheapest Golf in Kanto: River Courses and Weekday Rounds Around ¥5,000

Golf around Tokyo costs more than golf around Osaka, and the cheap rounds are in two places: on the rivers and a long way out. The Arakawa, Tamagawa and Tone rivers all have public courses on their floodplains, flat and often reachable by train, and a weekday round on some of them still costs ¥5,000 or less. Drive two hours into Gunma and hill courses match those prices with lunch included.

All prices below were checked on the courses' own sites, or on Jalan Golf and Rakuten GORA where noted, in late September 2026. They change with the season and the tee time, so use them to see what is cheap and confirm on the course's site before you book.

The short version

Cheapest full 18 near Tokyo: Noda City Public Golf, Hibari course, on the Tone river in Chiba: ¥5,200 on a weekday, ¥4,900 in midsummer and winter.
Cheapest round by train: Kawasaki Riverside Park, nine holes on the Tamagawa for ¥3,900 on a weekday, by bus from JR Kawasaki.
Easiest without a car: Tone Park Golf in Toride, 18 holes a short walk from JR Toride, about 40 minutes from Ueno.
Cheapest full 18 inside Tokyo's 23 wards: Akabane Golf Club, from about ¥10,200 on a weekday with lunch.
Cheapest by car: hill courses in Gunma, from about ¥5,500 on a weekday with lunch, or less for an afternoon round.

What a cheap price includes

A cheap headline price can hide a lot, or leave a lot out. Before comparing, check whether a plan is self-play (everything here is), whether lunch is included (昼食付), whether you ride a cart or walk, and whether tax is in the price. The prices in this guide include consumption tax and the golf course usage tax (ゴルフ場利用税).

That usage tax varies. Tokyo sets it on eight grades from ¥400 to ¥1,200; the cheap riverbed courses here pay ¥400 to ¥600, and Tone Park in Ibaraki pays ¥900. Players under 18 or 70 and over pay none. In Tokyo, early, twilight and night rounds pay half if the fee itself is discounted enough, but Ibaraki ended its early and twilight discount on 2 January 2026.

Booking is in Japanese: by phone, on the course's own site, or on Rakuten GORA, GDO or Jalan Golf with a browser translator. Some riverbed courses take walk-ins on weekdays; others open bookings months ahead. Book early for autumn weekends.

The river courses

Noda City Public Golf, Hibari course (野田市パブリックゴルフ場ひばりコース), Noda, Chiba

Eighteen holes, par 72, on the Tone river floodplain, and the cheapest full round we found near Tokyo: ¥5,200 on a weekday and ¥9,400 at weekends for most of the year (March to June and September to December), dropping to ¥4,900 and ¥9,100 in July, August, January and February. Every group plays 18 holes straight through with no lunch break; there is a snack stand at the turn but no restaurant, and showers but no bath. Early-morning and afternoon nines are ¥3,000 on weekdays.

Two things to know. The course stopped renting clubs and shoes in April 2024, so bring your own. And it floods: it was closed until 23 September 2026 after heavy rain and a typhoon. Book by phone (04-7138-1112) from 13:00 on the first of the month, four months ahead; single players can book by phone and are paired with others. It is about 15 minutes by taxi from Kashiwa-tanaka on the Tsukuba Express.

The sister Keyaki course next door is a woodland course and costs about twice as much, but its afternoon nine with a pull cart is ¥3,300 on weekdays.

Kawasaki Riverside Park (川崎リバーサイドパークゴルフ場), Kawasaki

A public nine-hole course on the Tamagawa, par 34 and 2,259 yards, played walking with a pull cart. Nine holes are ¥3,900 on weekdays and ¥4,500 at weekends, ¥400 less from July to September, and a second nine costs ¥2,800 on weekdays. Weekdays are first come, first served, with queue tickets from 5:00, and the wait can run to an hour; weekends are booked online or by phone, two months ahead. Every player must bring their own set of clubs: the course lists no rentals and does not allow sharing. Collared shirts, no jeans or shorts. Take city bus 73 from the west exit of JR Kawasaki to Miyuki-koen.

Shin-Tokyo Tomin Golf (新東京都民ゴルフ場), Adachi, Tokyo

Nine holes, par 31, on the Arakawa inside Tokyo's 23 wards: ¥5,000 on weekdays and ¥6,000 at weekends, with a second lap for half that. It rents an eight-club set for ¥3,000. You can turn up without a booking early in the morning and on weekdays; weekends need a booking by 16:00 the day before. Toei buses run from JR Oji to the Nitta 1-chome terminus.

Asaka Public Golf (朝霞パブリックゴルフ場), Asaka, Saitama, and Yoshimi Golf (吉見ゴルフ場), Yoshimi, Saitama

Two full-size Arakawa courses. Asaka is 18 holes, par 72, walking, at about ¥8,500 to ¥8,700 on a weekday with lunch, and around ¥14,900 at weekends; a free club bus runs from Kita-Asaka and Asakadai stations. Yoshimi has three nines and sells weekday self-play from about ¥9,600, with an afternoon half-round for ¥4,000. Yoshimi says its own website is always its cheapest price.

Tone Park Golf (利根パークゴルフ場), Toride, Ibaraki

If you are coming from central Tokyo without a car, this is the one to pick: 18 holes on the Tone river, eight to ten minutes on foot from JR Toride, or a free bus every 15 minutes from the west exit. Autumn rates are ¥10,000 on weekdays, ¥16,400 on Saturdays and ¥14,900 on Sundays, walking with a pull cart and no lunch; a riding cart adds ¥1,650 each. Twilight nines are ¥5,850 on weekdays, with no booking. It rents a men's set for ¥3,300. Book by phone (0297-72-1306) or on the course site, whose prices differ from the portals. Single golfers cannot book, but can turn up around 7:30 on a weekday to be paired with others.

Akabane Golf Club (赤羽ゴルフ倶楽部), Kita-ku, Tokyo

The cheaper of the two full 18s inside the 23 wards on this list (the other is Wakasu), on the Arakawa and seven minutes on foot from JR Ukima-Funado on the Saikyo Line. It is not cheap by Kanto standards, ¥10,200 to ¥11,420 on a weekday with lunch and around ¥15,000 at weekends, but an evening nine is ¥4,250 on weekdays. The site has an automatic English translation.

Further out: Gunma

Myogi Country Club (妙義カントリークラブ), Tomioka

A good example of what distance buys. On Jalan a weekday self-play round is ¥5,490 with a lunch allowance, an afternoon 18 without lunch ¥4,490, and a twilight nine ¥3,270. October weekends were around ¥8,000 to ¥14,000. It is car only.

For comparison: Wakasu and the municipal courses

Wakasu Golf Links on Tokyo Bay is the course most visitors hear about, because it is easy to reach from Shin-Kiba. It is a public course but not a cheap one: ¥12,450 on weekdays and ¥21,450 at weekends, with most tee times allocated by monthly lottery. Municipal does not always mean cheap either: Kawasaki's Ikuta-ryokuchi course is ¥15,130 on a weekday, and residents book first.

Ways to pay less

Play on a weekday. How much you save varies a lot: at the courses above it runs from about 15 per cent to nearly half.
Play nine. Early and twilight nines run ¥3,000 to ¥6,000.
Pick the season. Noda and Kawasaki Riverside both charge less in midsummer or winter.
Drive further. A Gunma hill course like Myogi costs about half of what Akabane does on a weekday.
Check the course's own site. Tone Park and Yoshimi both price differently from the booking portals.
Bring your own clubs. Several cheap courses have no rentals, and where they exist they cost ¥3,000 or more.

If this is your first round in Japan, read how to play golf in Japan first. For Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe, see the Kansai version of this guide, and if you are playing alone, our solo golf guide.

Prices were checked on the courses' official sites, Jalan Golf and Rakuten GORA on 27 September 2026 and include tax. Courses change their prices by season and time of day; confirm the current plan before you book.