Japan’s sumo giants have been banned from playing golf and asked to strictly obey traffic laws as the country’s ancient sport gears up for its formal return from a damaging bout-fixing scandal. Sumo officials are turning the screw after being given the government’s go-ahead to hold its first tournament since a sting operation led to 25 wrestlers and trainers being fired. “This is really the start so I want the wrestlers to be braced for it,” Japan Sumo Association (JSA) chairman Hanaregoma told Japanese media. “I want them to go into battle feeling the nerves. There will be no playing golf and they will be told to adhere to the rules of traffic.”
Following a serious traffic accident some years ago, wrestlers were banned from driving and they will also have their mobile phones confiscated for the July 10-24 Nagoya tournament. Accusations of match-fixing are not unheard of in sumo but text messages discovered on mobile phones tipped off the JSA and sparked the latest public relations disaster. Lengthy charge sheets leading to mass sackings and even arrests and convictions in gambling, drug use, gang crime and assault cases have plagued the sports in recent years. Sumo’s privileged position of enjoying special tax breaks could still be at risk unless the sport, which dates back around 2,000 years, cleans up its act.
Mongolian “yokozuna,” or grand champion, Hakuho will be favorite to win his 19th Emperor’s Cup in Nagoya. His countryman, former top dog Asashoryu, broke every rule in the book, from swanning around in Hawaiian shirts and shorts, playing soccer while supposedly injured to brawling naked with rivals in the communal bathrooms. The firebrand champion was forced out of the sport in early 2010 following a drunken punch-up outside a Tokyo nightclub.
