EDITORIAL: Reforming sumo world

The Japan Sumo Association on Sunday announced disciplinary action against oyakata sumo elders and wrestlers embroiled in the scandal over illegal gambling on baseball games.

But the action is merely a quick fix to ensure that the Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament will open as scheduled on July 11.

Police are still investigating allegations that special ringside seats were supplied to gangsters through sumo elders, as well as the illegal betting on baseball games.

The deep-seated ills of the sumo community remain untreated. Are top officials of the sport's governing body aware of this problem?

The association sacked stablemaster Otake and ozeki Kotomitsuki for their involvement in the gambling, effectively expelling them from the sumo community. This is the first time a sitting ozeki has been fired.

Adding to the extraordinary situation, the JSA chairman, Musashigawa, has been suspended for the 15-day tournament over his underlings' illegal gambling.

Yokozuna Hakuho and other wrestlers, who escaped disciplinary action because their bets on traditional card games were deemed not serious, also apologized.

If the JSA thinks the slate has been wiped clean, it is grossly mistaken. The association named Hiroyoshi Murayama, an outside director of the body who once headed the Tokyo High Public Prosecutors Office, as acting chairman in place of Musashigawa.

Outrageously though, many inside directors of the JSA were initially reluctant to accept a person who has never been a wrestler as the acting chief and pushed for stablemaster Hanaregoma, a director, to take the helm. Their longstanding argument was that the sumo community is a unique world that only insiders can understand.

The leaders of the association who stick to such parochial, inward-looking thinking even amid a typhoon of criticism against them apparently don't understand the situation they are in.

This exclusive, clubby culture is at the heart of the series of scandals that have rocked the sumo community, including the death of a teenage wrestler after a brutal sparring session.

What is critical for the JSA's efforts for a rebirth is the role of an independent committee the body promises to establish to improve governance.

In addition to considering measures to ensure the association will sever ties with yakuza and handle crises more effectively, the panel is expected to review the stable system, long criticized as being closed.

Given its mission, the panel should comprise legal experts and former top corporate executives. With Murayama's term as acting chairman set to end on July 25, the last day of the tournament, the new panel should be set up immediately to map out a specific plan to reform the sumo community.

The panel should also take a hard look at the makeup of the association leadership. Except for the two outside directors, all the other 10 directors are former sumo wrestlers. As the move to block the appointment of Murayama shows, these insiders cannot be expected to carry through effective reforms.

Meaningful reform of the JSA requires bold action, such as filling half of the director positions with outsiders.

The role of the current association leadership, which has failed to carry out necessary reforms so far, should be to provide full support to the committee. The JSA should not be put under the same regime centering on Musashigawa again.

The sumo community is not a unique universe isolated from society. It is a social entity that has meaning only because there are people who love sumo. Uncovering the whole truth about the alleged relationships between the sumo community and anti-social groups and severing such ties are indispensable for the community's rebirth.

Sumo association officials who can only think according to an inward-looking logic should stop and consider for whom professional sumo exists.

--The Asahi Shimbun, July 6