Perspectives

The Japan Sumo Association (JSA) is urged to take the opportunity of taking severe punitive measures against wrestlers and stablemasters involved in illegal gambling to reform the sumo world's outdated culture.

The JSA has fully accepted recommendations for punitive measures by the fact-finding committee comprised of outside experts, including the dismissal of an ozeki-ranked wrestler and a stablemaster, opening the way to go ahead with the July Grand Sumo Tournament in Nagoya.

It was unprecedented for the sumo association to leave the investigation into the scandal and recommendations for punishments of those involved to the discretion of outside experts.

The JSA even agreed to ban Chairman Musashigawa from managing the upcoming tournament and appoint an outside member of its board as acting chairman. It had been apparently taboo for the hierarchical organization to even discuss whether its chairman should be barred from managing the tournament.

The panel had demanded that the JSA fully implement measures it recommended as a precondition for going ahead with the upcoming tourney.

Even though the JSA may have painstakingly complied with the panel's demands in a desperate bid to retain its status of a public utility corporation, its decision should be appreciated to a certain extent.

Nonetheless, it is premature to conclude whether the punitive measures are sufficient to override the general public's calls for cancellation of the upcoming tournament. In a Mainichi Shimbun poll, over 60 percent of the respondents said the next tournament should be cancelled.

The public is apparently looking for fundamental reform of the outdated culture of sumo society, in which wrestlers' outrageous behavior had been overlooked to a certain degree because they live in a special world.

The sumo world is far detached from our day-to-day world. Giant wrestlers, with their old-fashioned hairstyle, aroma of scented oil and air of dignity acquired through severe training and fierce bouts, drastically change the atmosphere around them when they appear. In that sense, sumo is quite different from other sports.

Therefore, supporters who extend financial and other assistance to their favorite sumo wrestlers tend to take them to parties or other public places to show off their dignified bearing.

"The effect of being a sumo wrestler is huge. Even if you're not a well-known wrestler, you'll draw attention from many people," says a wrestler in the lower-ranking makushita division.

Thus, wrestlers have distinguished themselves from what they called "yokata," or members of the general public, and have clung to their privileged status. Such special treatment was a hotbed for their involvement in illegal baseball gambling.

However, the public became critical of the outdated culture of the sumo world following an incident in which wrestlers fatally assaulted a junior wrestler at the Tokitsukaze stable in 2007 at the instruction of their coach as punishment for leaving the stable.

A series of scandals that subsequently surfaced and the JSA's response to these cases, which raised questions about whether they seriously regret them, have added fuel to the furor. The gambling scandal has demonstrated that the culture of the sumo world has not changed since despite growing criticism.

Many wrestlers who have admitted to their involvement in illegal gambling told the fact-finding panel that they did not know that their stakes could end up being funneled to yakuza organizations.

Such an excuse is unacceptable. Sumo wrestlers, coaches and other members of the JSA should learn the seriousness of the harm caused by organized crime. Otherwise, the public will not support the JSA's attempt to survive.

If members of the JSA feel the punitive measures recommended by the third-party panel are too severe, then the association should further reform itself. Members of the general public are urging the JSA to fundamentally change its culture. (By Takahiro Nomura, Sports News Editor)